An Unheard of Love
by pamplemousse39
Summary: It is six months after the war. Hermione has went through pain and loss, but finds herself the apprentice of Severus Snape. What will happen when her heart starts to tell her that it may now belong to her professor? Will they find love and happiness or only hurt and misery? Rated T to be safe. First few chapters are short but they pick up tremendously after that so hang in there!
1. Chapter 1

**Warning: This is a Snape/Hermione fanfiction. If you do not like the pairing DO NOT read. Please do not read this and send reviews saying how it is disgusting. You were warned. Thank you.**

**Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns everything. These words are just random musings put together off of her wonderful ideas.**

Love may be unkind, but it is not unattainable...unless, of course, one never even attempts to reach for it. Hermione Granger knew that. She had experienced the unkindness of love by being with Ron for several months after the war. A love that was built on the fear and passion of never knowing which day would be one's last. Once the war was over, the love they thought they had found slowly faded. There were no more arguments that made them the loving couple they were, just arguments that led to hate and deceit.

Hermione had just finished getting the last of her things from her parents' old home and was walking back up to the Burrow, when she heard giggling in a nearby bush. She was not normally curious in such manners, and honestly figured it was just Ginny, but something pulled her towards the bush just to make sure. It was fortunate that she chose to look, she decided later, because if she had not then she would have continued to live a lie. There, lying on his back, in the grass was Ron. The only thing Hermione noticed though was the blonde girl straddling him with her shirt crooked and revealing a good amount of cleavage. She didn't even question him, just apparated on the spot straight to Hogsmeade.

That had been six months ago, and since then Hermione had taken her N.E.W.T.S. and, of course, passed brilliantly. Afterwards, she had been offered an apprenticeship under the one and only potions master, Severus Snape. After the war, when the grounds were being searched for survivors he was discovered where they had left him for dead with a still beating, although very faint, heart. It had taken more than a month for him to heal completely, but when he did he was back to the same Head of Slytherin potion's master they all knew, except as a recognized war hero and grudgingly admired by many. The need for an apprentice led to many rumors among students, including Snape retiring or getting the position for Defense Against Dark Arts professor. This in fact was quite wrong, Snape was not planning on going anywhere, but as the war taught so many, one never knew what time would bring and seeing as he was one of the only wizards that could brew certain potions a replacement needed to be trained immediately, just to be safe. This led to Hermione Granger being asked, rather grudgingly on Snape's behalf. It took all he could to swallow his pride to admit that the insufferable know-it-all was the only one capable of learning the potions she would need to know.

That is how it came to be that Hermione was sitting at her desk beside Professor Snape's own desk contemplating love and the risk it required, knowing in the end it would be worth it no matter which way the cards fell. Yes, Hermione Jean Granger had gotten caught up in love by that foolish organ humans call a heart. Sensible Hermione, who after discovering Ron's affair, decided to put all focus into her studies for the next couple of years. Sadly, it was becoming more and more difficult to focus when she was constantly thinking thoughts that she shouldn't be having.

Hermione didn't believe herself to be foolish and she most certainly did not jump man to man. She had had a small crush on Viktor Krum, mainly because he was the first boy who paid her any attention now that she thought about it. After that ended she was too caught up in the preludes of the war to notice any boys. She only fell for Ron because he was there, the war was going on, and he had been her best friend, besides Harry. It only seemed natural they would get together. Now though, her heart had chosen someone else, someone she deemed entirely inappropriate but what was she to do? Her heart had chosen for her with not a care for the arguments she had given it. For one, he was twice her age, she at nineteen he at thirty-eight, but this did not matter for her intelligence matched his own and she was extremely mature for her age. Another argument was, for goodness sake's, he was her teacher! Once again her heart made this not matter by arguing back that she was his apprentice, not necessarily a student, but an adult training to fill his position if the need arose. These were entirely different things. No, there was no arguing with her heart, it was just the problem of what to do about it now that it had won.

Confronting her feelings to him was where Hermione's nerves tried to get the best of her, but the thought that kept haunting her was being repeated; love is never unattainable, unless someone is unwilling to even try. This thought is what led Hermione to decide that she must confront him. What was the worst that could happen? He couldn't dismiss her apprenticeship, she was the only one that he would properly be able to train. No, the worst thing that could happen would be him not reciprocating her feelings, and honestly she assumed that this is what would happen. How many professors fall in love with, or even admire, someone they have taught since they were eleven? This she brushed off with the sad, reflective thought that the war made people admit to crazy things, and do stuff that they would have never done before. It left people with a sense of living for the moment and to hell with what people thought. It also caused them all to grow up so fast, Hermione for one felt years older than eighteen after witnessing so many deaths. Having to choose to help someone or to keep walking, it aged a person more than one could ever understand. So now, what would she do? Unfortunately, she didn't have long to think it over, Professor Snape decided at that moment it was time to barge in their shared office and throw a book on her desk.

**Author's Note: This was originally planned to be a one-shot, but when I typed to this point I decided this was a great ending for a chapter. Also, I didn't want to rush the relationship, because as Hermione mused what are the chance of Snape instantly returning her feelings out of nowhere? Haha. Either way please review! I would love any constructive criticism or ideas for upcoming chapters. I will update as quickly as possible. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Here," Snape snarled, "read this and take notes. You will be learning how to make healing potions today and you must be able to do them correctly. These are not simple little schoolgirl potions, so do NOT under any circumstances assume that just because you are one of the top witches of your age that they will come easily." He quickly spun on his heel and headed towards his desk to respond to the many letters he had piling up requesting different potions.

"Sir, this book is _Advanced Potions for Healers_, why would I need to know these? I do not want to become a healer at all." She bit her lip in confusion, still not thinking straight from her earlier thoughts. Snape snatched his head up so violently that Hermione jumped a little in her chair, realizing quickly the mistake she had made because she wasn't focused. It wasn't like Hermione at all to make such a silly comment that was so obviously wrong, but lately it took all she could do to remain in focus and today was definitely one of her worse days. Maybe someone had slipped a drop of Forgetfulness Potion in her goblet that morning, either way Snape was headed her way and she squirmed while berating herself for how stupid she had been.

"You silly girl! You are here to become a potion's _master_, not someone only specialized in the potions that are taught at this school! Do you forget that you are not my apprentice to take over my job as professor at Hogwarts, but to learn the ins and outs of every single potion there is? Not only will you teach the nitwits that come through your classroom, but you will supply countless facilities potions that they are too addle minded to make for themselves! You should know out of all people that the hospital wing, and more importantly St. Mungos, rarely brews any medicinal potions for themselves!" he took a breath to give her a disdainful stare. "Now," he said, reverting back to his slow, methodical form of speech, "get to work." He enunciated every word slowly before returning to his desk leaving Hermione turning an alarming shade of red. Yes, today was definitely one of her worse days as his apprentice and she knew continuing to stay unfocused for some silly fascination with her professor was not going to do anybody any good. For of course that is what it was, just a fascination. She admired his intelligence and strength, the way he had complete respect and attention when he walked into a room, that was it and it would pass. She would quit fantasizing ways to admit her feelings and focus on more important tasks. Love, wait no admiration, she chastised herself, could wait.

With that thought she quickly opened the book and started scribbling notes on multiple potions, including everything from the ingredients required to where to find the ingredients. What she didn't notice was Snape gazing in her direction with his hand on his chin, pondering what was wrong with her. He had noticed she had not been herself lately, and while he told himself he most certainly was not concerned about her but his need for a replacement should something happen to him, he was in fact worried. He knew Hermione was his only chance to have someone fill his shoes and the British wizarding community, was counting on her. Without him or her they would all be in dire need of many medical supplies, not to mention the other types of potions he brewed on a regular basis. It was exhausting and he had yet to figure out why they put it all on one person and not, as Hermione had logically brought to attention earlier even though it irritated him to admit it, the people in that specific specialty. It was what it was though, so he had to train her diligently so she would be ready whenever the time came up for her to step up in his place. A smirk grew on his face as the thought that she must still be upset over the Weasley boy came to mind. He knew they had had a bitter break up but did not feel the need to waste his time finding out childish details. He also knew she had been receiving letters from the stupid boy the past couple of weeks, which he found odd. They seemingly cut all ties and now an influx of letters… oh well that is what happens amongst foolish idiots that thought they knew what love was he mused. He almost allowed himself to chuckle out loud. Silly children thinking they knew what love truly was. Would any of them go through what he had gone through for someone that they "loved"? No, he doubted that. Maybe he was being arrogant, but how many people would be a spy for Voldemort, put themselves in immortal danger, just to look after the son of the person they loved that wasn't even their own? No, it is a very rare love indeed that would do that he decided, although maybe it was more devotion and guilt that drove him to it? Snape shook his head slightly. It was a pestering thought he did not quite understand. All those years fighting for Lily and he was questioning his motives behind it, even though he had to admit it wasn't the first time the thought had crossed his mind. Many times during the war, he questioned that maybe he was just too cowardly to completely break from Voldemort and that is why he chose instead to be a spy. He shook his head again and ran a hand through his hair. He would not become unfocused like Granger had been the past few weeks. He was not some silly boy and what was done was done, it was time to move on.

Three hours had passed when Hermione put her quill down and addressed Snape. "Professor? I have finished all my notes and was wondering what you wanted me to do next?"

Snape looked up at her slowly. "You have already finished all of your notes? Did I not tell you to take your time, that this was not a silly text assigned to you during your years at Hogwarts?" It wasn't that he doubted she was done, or the quality of her work, but he was not about to let her get off that easily, he did not need an apprentice that was too sure of herself, and Hermione was already bordering that indefinitely. He glared at her menacingly for a couple of minutes. "Very well, Miss Granger, you may go." He smirked at her confused expression.

"Go? But sir, I have only taken notes today. Are there no potions that need to be made for anybody?" She was slightly confused and wondering if she had upset him. He never let her have that easy of a day. In fact, half the time it felt as if he was pushing her to quit. Was it because of her remark earlier? She barely had time to think before Snape snatched her attention back with his reply.

"No, Miss Granger, there are not any potions to be made and if there were don't you think I would have you brewing them at this moment? Are you questioning my capabilities as your instructor?" Snape was lying through his teeth about the amount of orders that were waiting to be filled, but he was bloody well not going to go back on what he said now.

Hermione gulped. First her slip up earlier and now she had managed to seem like she thought she knew more than him on how to instruct her. This day was going from bad to worse and she was beginning to be glad Snape had decided to let her go early. Now if she could just get out of the situation she was in. "No sir! I just wanted to help that is all," she paused before continuing quickly. "You just seem to be more stressed than usual and I figured I could take on some more work." She bit her lip wondering if she had lost her mind to be so blatantly concerned.

Snape stared at her, completely confused at the aspect that his apprentice would be concerned about him pausing momentarily. He quickly recovered though, and decided he could not deal with the girl's obvious lack of control over her emotions with dealing with the Weasley boy. "So now you dare to imply I cannot handle my work load? You, that is so caught up in those ridiculous letters from Weasley that you can't even concentrate on what you are supposed to be doing as _my_ apprentice anymore? Maybe, Miss Granger, the reason I am letting you off early today is because of your inadequate attention span as of late and because I feel any work you do will be less than acceptable at the moment. Now leave!"

Hermione didn't even reply she just snatched her books and bolted out the door. Really, she thought to herself, the man shouldn't get under her skin so easily. She was grown and here she was running from his office like a scared first year. It wasn't until she had gotten almost to her room to put her stuff down before heading to the great hall that it hit her that he was aware of the letters she had been receiving from Ron. How in the world could he know that though? Surely he wasn't intercepting her mail before it was delivered to her. He would have no reason to, and therefore could get in serious trouble, but she doubted Snape would even care nor would he be dealt with harshly after his involvement in the war and the need for him to make potions. She was just starting to leave her room when it hit her that, once again, she was being an idiot today. Of course he knew who she was getting letters from. As his apprentice she was required to sit by him at the staff's table. That still didn't explain why he paid that much attention to her though at the dining hall. Oh well, he was a spy, maybe some habits die hard.

**A/N: So this chapter is a little bit longer. Not much happened but I think it is a good lead up and I feel like I left a good bit of hints to upcoming events in later chapters. It may seem like Hermione has changed her mind about her feelings, but I want to keep her in character and we all know she is not a girl to just swoon over a guy. She will have her moments, but she will still remained focused on what's important. Now please review! I'm in college so keeping this updated is not easy, but reviews would make it easier lol! Next chapter should be up, at the latest, by Saturday.**


	3. Chapter 3

When Hermione made it to the great hall, it was to see Snape already seated in his spot at the staff's table. Honestly, how that man managed to get around as quickly and quietly as he did would forever be beyond her. She was hoping to already be seated by the time he came in to eat, but of course this horrible day wouldn't give her that luxury.

She took a breath and hurried up to the table, ducking her head as she sat down next to Snape. She normally would try to engage him in conversation, which usually failed dismally, but today she decided that her best idea would be to just eat quietly and leave.

"Miss Granger, has someone hexed you where you can't speak? Normally, you never shut up and now you don't utter a word." Snape smirked as he watched the girl let out what sounded to be a squeak and drop the creamed potatoes she was serving herself on her plate with a clatter. It amused him to know he could still get under her skin so bad. Most students that graduated treated him with defiance when they came across him again even if it was as a co-professor. He supposed it was a way to prove he didn't have control over them anymore. Not Hermione though, he still had the same nerve-wracking effect on her he always had had.

Hermione muttered a quick spell to clean up the splattered potatoes before replying to him. "No sir, I just have been thinking about the potions you had me study today. I ran across a couple that caught my attention." She hoped this would keep the conversation he had started on safe ground and not go downhill like the one they had had in his classroom.

"I would assume you would. Some of those potions are key components for healers to save lives with."

"One really caught my eye," Hermione hesitated before continuing. "The Blood-Replenishing Potion, it's what was used to save Mr. Weasley was it not?"

"Yes, I thought you knew that?" he eyed her closely wondering what she was getting at. Surely a witch of her intelligence had figured out how they must have saved Arthur, or at least assumed.

She took a breath before hurrying on with what she was saying. "Is it what saved you as well?"

She looked up at him apprehensively. Snape was in complete shock. Why did she care what saved him? It was incredulous to even think someone could be concerned about him, and even if he dared think that someone might be concerened what was she thinking bringing it up in the middle of a meal where they were surrounded by the whole school? "Miss Granger, I find that question completely inappropriate given the present company and…" he slowly ended what he was saying as he realized her gaze was fixed on the entrance to the great hall while a look of horror spread across her features.

He slowly turned his head to see what had snatched her attention away from what he was saying and could not help but roll his eyes. "You have got to be bloody kidding me," which earned him a quick look of shock from Hermione before her attention was snatched back to the red head across from them.

There, making his way to the middle of the room was Ron Weasley breathing hard as if he had ran the whole way up there. "Hermione!" he yelled walking briskly up to the staff table, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. Snape quickly glanced at Hermione as complete silence overcame everyone.

"Hermione, I have been owling you for three weeks with no response. What the bloody hell is going on?"

Hermione's face turned several shades of red before she quickly stood up and exited the great hall as quickly as possible with a quick "I'm so sorry," directed to Headmistress McGonagall.

Snape could tell she was humiliated and was shocked to see the git had the nerve to follow her. Was the idiot drunk? Snape sighed exasperated, of course he probably was. Weasley was daft but not so much as to make a fool of himself in front of the whole school. He decided it was probably in Granger's best interest to follow in case the alcohol started to affect Weasley's judgment even worse.

He found the couple in the hallway and decided it was best to hide behind one of the pillars unless he was needed. He did not like getting of the middle of arguments, especially foolish arguments caused by childish romance. He was shocked to see Hermione had stopped and faced Ron looking absolutely livid. He expected tears, not anger. Although, she was a Gryffindor so it fit he mused.

"You cad!" Hermione shrieked. "How dare you come and humiliate me in front of the whole school? The school I hope to be employed at in the future? Haven't you done enough already?" She was furious and Snape saw that Weasley was too far drunk to realize he was pushing through dangerous waters.

"_I _have embarrassed _you_?" Ron yelled back violently. "First, you invade my privacy, then you don't even have the nerve to talk to me or listen to anything I am trying to tell you! Don't talk to me about humiliation."

Hermione stood gaping at him. _His_ humiliation? _His_ privacy? Had he gone completely insane? How dare he patronize her when he had been messing around with someone else when they were together? Tears started to form, but it was not sadness that made them threaten to fall but pure anger. She could not believe him, and at that moment something in her snapped and she lost her temper like she never had before.

"How dare you? How _dare _you? You dare yell at me about your _privacy_? You mean to say _I_ intruded, your _girlfriend_, on you and that _whore_?" By this point Hermione had pulled out her wand. He had done it this time. First, to come and embarrass her in front of her colleagues, but now to imply she had been in the wrong for catching him with that girl? She started walking towards him menacingly.

To say Snape was shocked would be an understatement, but it still did not feel as if Granger was in danger. Plus, no matter how mad she was she knew she would do nothing illegal to the idiot, even if he probably deserved it. So Weasley had been cheating on Hermione? That explained a good bit of why Hermione refused to have anything else to do with the prat. Snape sighed to himself, why were boys always so stupid at that age? Weasley had a wonderful woman beside him and he threw it all away on some tramp.

He instantly realized what he had just thought and stopped. Since when did he think Granger was wonderful, and dare he say it, a woman? Obviously, the smell off of Weasley was intoxicating him as well. He would not have thought that otherwise, he was sure. These ponderings were cut short when he saw a hex fly at Weasley.

"_Nauses aspiret_!" Hermione sent another hex at him, this time causing a loud pop and blood to start pouring out of Ron's nose.

He stood there shocked for a second; seeming to come to his senses, then looked up glaring at her. "You stupid bitch!" he yelled through the blood pouring into his mouth before lunging at her.

Right before he could do anything, Snape decided to make his presence known. He quickly walked out from behind the pillar he was hiding behind while directly addressing Ron and side-stepping in front of his apprentice. "I suggest you stop what you are doing and leave," he said in his slow, deadly quiet voice that scared Ron more than if he had been yelling at him.

Ron backed off slowly and looked as if he was going to run before another thought seemed to hit him and he stopped halfway down the hall. "So you got mad at me for messing around with another girl? At least I haven't turned into a greasy git's whore!" Before Ron could turn to run, Snape shot a curse at him that flung him against the wall knocking him unconscious.

Hermione stood shaking, half in shock that Ron had actually tried to lay his hands on her and half in shock that Snape had actually harmed him when he had dared to imply that Hermione was his whore. She didn't know whether to be thankful to the man in front of her or be upset. Was it possible he was that repulsed by the thought of being with her? She slowly looked up at Snape and was astounded by how attractive she found him at that moment. Was it because he had come to her defense? How did he even know where they were? Did he follow them and if he did, did that mean he actually worried about her?

Snape looked down at her and seeing how shaken she seemed to be quickly turned around to face her, completely forgetting that Weasley was still lying on the floor. "Miss Granger, are you ok?" He suddenly was filled with overwhelming concern for the girl and he couldn't put a finger on why.

"I-I think so," she slowly replied, trying to regain control of her voice. "Thank you, sir."

"I will not have some prat that can't keep his trousers on laying a hand on _my _apprentice," he snarled sliding his wand back up his sleeve. "By the way, nice hex," he allowed a small smirk appear on his features.

Hermione gasped. She was shocked at the tone he said "my" with. Was there a hint of possession in it? Oh, so many questions were running through her mind. There was no need to keep asking herself things that she had no idea the answer to, so instead she decided to see where this moment would lead to. Maybe she could at least get the answer to one on her mind.

She smirked back, looking directly into Snape's eyes. "You aren't the only one that can come up with your own spells."

She took a step closer and then stopped. She didn't want to push her luck by moving any closer, but it didn't seem as if Snape had even noticed, he certainly didn't step back. She took this as a good sign and decided to take another chance. She quickly grabbed his hand before he could move it away and lightly squeezed it.

"Thank you again. I really would have never thought he would ever get violent. He's been owling me lately begging for me back, but I never thought he would take it this far. It is not like him at all."

Snape slowly looked down at his hand being clasped by Hermione's and realized how large his looked in hers. He shook his mind back to the conversation they were having, but left his hand in hers.

He pulled his gaze back up to Hermione's. "That is what sometimes happens when one has had too much to drink, Miss Granger, and even if it was influenced by alcohol I think it would be best if you stayed a good distance away from him from now on." Hermione nodded her head not saying anything.

Snape took another breath to address the next issue. "I hope what he insinuated about," he made a strained sound trying to get the words out, "_us_ will not affect you in your studies with me."

She blushed crimson, recalling Ron's words that caused Snape's anger. He thought Snape coming out in her defense meant that they, her and Professor Snape, were actually _lovers_. She could barely even think about it in Snape's presence without becoming completely mortified. Sure, she had imagined things, she was a growing woman and she did have feelings for Snape so it was not unnatural that she had, but to have the idea thrown out in the open by someone else in front of him? That was something else entirely.

"No, no sir! Of course not! I'm sorry he said that, it was entirely inappropriate," she looked up at him still blushing.

"The only thing inappropriate, Miss Granger, was him calling you somebody's whore. Now we best be getting back to our rooms before someone comes and finds us here and rumors spread around the whole bloody school of me and Weasley dueling over you," he smirked again.

It was at this moment they realized they were still holding hands and snatched their hands back to their respective sides. Hermione's mind was going crazy. So he was defending her, not appalled at the thought of being with her! He also said the only thing inappropriate was Ron calling her a whore, so did that mean he didn't think them being together was inappropriate? She was almost thankful Ron had shown up and made a complete arse of himself.

Her attention was quickly brought back to focus when she caught the sight of Ron's crumpled form lying in the floor. "Um, sir? What about Ron?"

Snape glanced at the boy with a look of disgust. He looked back at Hermione, "Leave him, someone will find him and send him to the infirmary. He's just knocked out, I didn't do him serious harm."

Hermione only took a second to confirm in her mind that what he said was more than likely true. Snape knew how powerful he was and wouldn't have done anything to do any serious harm and probably had held back a good bit of power from the spell causing it not to be as strong as it could have been.

She quickly gathered up her courage before asking one more question. "Mind walking with me to my room then? To make sure I stay safe and all," she added quickly, smiling.

"Normally I would say no, but," he slowly drawled looking around, "maybe it is best to make sure no more drunken idiots come to try to win you back today." He gave her a smirk and with that they walked off from the red head that had caused so much trouble.

**A/N: So this is a little longer. Ron finally got it from both Hermione and Severus! Good for them and unknowingly I think Ron may have planted a seed in at least Snape's head ;) Also is Snape showing a small sense of humor, hmm? Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried to make the paragraphs shorter, so let me know how I did. Also, the spell is Latin and I made it up, I hope this doesn't offend anyone or take away from the story. For some reason, I feel like in the last book a spell like that was used but I've looked and looked and couldn't find it anywhere so I just made my own name for it. As always, review, review, review! Thanks for the support!**


	4. Chapter 4

After all that happened with Ron, the rest of the week remained uneventful. It had been five days since he had been found by Madam Pomfrey and nobody ever questioned Hermione or Snape about what happened. Hermione figured once Ron had gotten over being drunk and realized what he had done, he had demanded that nothing be said and left as quickly as he could.

Meanwhile, Snape had started allowing Hermione to help supervise students in the classroom and she couldn't be happier. Not only was she getting more time near Severus, she had started using his first name in her mind since that night, but she was also getting hands-on experience helping students learn a subject that actually held great importance.

She did not know if the occurrence with Ron had caused Severus to allow her to help him or if he had been planning to let her in the classroom soon anyway. They hadn't had much time to actually talk since then so she hadn't been able to try to figure out what was on his mind, if anything at all, concerning her. She certainly hoped that night had opened his eyes a bit; she was tired of pining after someone that should, under all circumstances, be an impossible case.

She didn't think of him having feelings for her as impossible because of him training her so much as it being impossible because of his personality. He did not open up to many people, if anyone at all. What made her think he would ever open up to her, the bushy-haired know-it-all Gryffindor?

She looked at her watch and realized it had been exactly five minutes and smoothly added the next ingredient into the potion she was making to fill an order for the Hospital Wing. It wasn't a difficult potion at all and she had made it countless times, not to mention she had been able to focus much better since the other night. Obviously Severus had noticed because he commented on it the day before saying he was glad her mind had come to its senses concerning Weasley. She didn't know if he was just glad she could now fully concentrate on her work or if he was glad she was truly over the prat. Probably the former she laughed to herself.

When she finished stirring the potion she grabbed a bottle and started ladling the mixture into it. Really, she could understand why he always made her fill the orders for this potion, it was ridiculously easy. Not only that, but they had orders for it constantly. Apparently, students could not refrain from burning themselves on a constant basis, therefore requiring burn salves to be made weekly. It really was a tedious job, mainly because it was so simple. There were so many more difficult potions Hermione would rather be working on and instead she was wasting time making this dreadful thing.

She finished filling and labeling all the containers then neatly put them in a box and picked them up to take down to Madam Pomfrey. She was not going to risk using _locomotor_ to take the salves down to the hospital wing with students running around on a Saturday. She smiled glad that the students could enjoy simple things like playing pranks in the halls on their free time now. Yes, they would still get in trouble if caught, but at least they were carefree again, not like during the war.

She was just turning the corner about to exit the dungeons when she was met with a tall, dark shadow. "Good morning, professor."

"Miss Granger. I see you have finished the order of burn salves I left you with." Hermione watched as he eyed the potions making sure they were brewed correctly. She knew he didn't doubt her work that it was just a habit of his, but it still stung a little nonetheless.

"Very well, meet me in my office when you have delivered them." He eyed her up and down again before continuing past her.

Hermione hurried to get done with the delivery. He had been in a better mood lately, but that didn't mean she was going to test it by dawdling around. Besides, she was anxious to see what he needed her for.

She quickly entered the hospital wing and walked straight to Madam Pomfrey's office to hand her the salves. She normally enjoyed staying to chat for a little bit before rushing off, but today she was eager to get back to Severus' office. It would truly be the first time they had had together since Ron appeared.

"Miss Granger! There you are and with the burn salves I ordered. All perfect, I presume." The older woman's eyes smiled at Hermione as she took the box. She had developed a soft spot for the girl and admired her for working under Severus. He was a tough man to deal with and not many people would have accepted the offer, even if it did mean becoming a potions master.

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey. I would love to stay for a cup of tea but I'm in a hurry. Professor Snape needed me in his office when I got these delivered."

"Very well, off you go then. Best not to keep that man waiting."

"Have a good day then, madam." Hermione bowed her head and turned heading swiftly back where she had come from.

By the time she made it back to the Severus' office, he had already started working on a potion and was stirring methodically when she walked through the door.

"Took you long enough," he greeted her without stopping what he was doing to even look up.

"Sorry, sir. I went straight there and back." She knew even if she had of apparated it probably wouldn't have been fast enough for the man so there was no point in arguing her point. She slowly walked over to stand beside him and peered down into the cauldron.

"Are you brewing Wolfsbane?"

"Yes. I assumed you would want to observe, but if I'm wrong…." His hands continued to work smoothly with the ingredients.

"No, I would love to watch!" Hermione quickly brought up a stool to sit beside him, not realizing until she sat down that she had put it where he would have to brush against her occasionally to work on the potion.

Hermione watched as he worked. He always did everything so smoothly, like he wasn't even controlling his hand but it had its own mind. Each time he moved she caught a whiff of his scent from his robes. He smelled wonderfully, although she couldn't quite put a finger on what the scent exactly was.

She watched as he added the ingredients never even glancing at the book he had opened. She assumed he had put it out more for her benefit than his. How many potions did he have memorized she wondered? Probably all of them, he certainly could answer any question he was asked without even pausing to think.

She reached for the book and started looking at the instructions. She noticed Severus' tidy scrawl making annotations in the margin. Suggestions on alternate measurements, different methods of preparing ingredients, and how long one really should allow it to simmer; she honestly didn't know why he didn't just publish his own book.

Suddenly a thought hit her. "Sir, do you… do you mind if I keep your books when I take over as potion's master?" She couldn't imagine not being able to look to the margin to find a much more efficient and correct way to brew a potion. The thought of his notes not being there suddenly seemed preposterous and making sure she would have them something of utmost importance.

"Excited at the thought of not having to learn from me personally?" He sat down the stirring stick he was using and turned towards her finally becoming aware at how close she had sat herself beside him.

"No, but I wouldn't be a very good potion's mistress without your wonderful insight, now would I?" She blushed at her own coyness. What had given her the nerve to say something like that?

He arched an eyebrow at her, crossing his arms slowly. "Surely, you do not think so highly of me? If I remember correctly, you and your little friends were always determined to find a way to get me thrown into Azkaban, now all of a sudden you act as if you think I am some kind of-"

"That was before we knew what you were doing, so that's not fair! Wasn't that the whole point? To make people believe you were bad, so you can't hold it against me that I fell for it. Besides, I never denied how smart you were." She took a step forward causing her chest to brush against him and looked straight up at him defiantly, "You are even greater than Dumbledore was, in my opinon."

Snape's eyes studied her closely and Hermione fought to keep her breath even. She cursed to herself when she accidently allowed her eyes to fall on his lips. They were thin, but she wondered if they only appeared that way. Maybe it was part of keeping his stern appearance.

He seemed to realize where her eyes were lingering because at that moment his hand reached up, grabbing her chin to force her to look him in the eyes again. "Don't allow yourself to be led into something you can't handle, Miss Granger."

His voice was softer than it normally was and Hermione almost detected sadness in it. Was he sad for her or for himself? She, shockingly, wasn't even embarrassed by him catching where her gaze had lied. In fact, it made her even more determined. At least he was now partially aware of her feelings and maybe things would start going somewhere, whether how she wanted or not.

"I know exactly what I can handle and I will allow myself to be led into whatever I so choose." She remained defiant and pushed herself even closer to him. If she wasn't a Gryffindor she would question where this burst of bravery and rashness was coming from, but it was pretty much hardwired into all of them so she just went with it.

He still held her chin in his hand and absentmindedly rubbed his thumb across it, then jerked back as if struck. "You aren't as bright as I thought you were then." He quickly turned around and started concentrating on the potion, even though they both knew it would not need any attention for a while. "You're dismissed."

Hermione almost stomped her foot in frustration but decided it would probably be in her best interest to refrain and slowly turned to leave. She paused at the doorway, looking back at Severus leaning over the cauldron, both of his hands grasping the work table.

"You really are the greatest wizard I've ever known." Before he had time to react she left.

To say Severus was in shock was an understatement. He didn't know what the girl was playing at but it was in her best interest to stop. He had seen that look before, not ever directed towards him, but passed between couples as they walked by each other. She had wanted to kiss him and he could not understand why.

Nobody had ever wanted him and the way she had hinted at it she made it a point to let him know it was more than just a physical want. What had he done to encourage such thoughts? McGonagall would have his head for sure if he allowed such things to continue. He must put a stop to it at once. He did not have time for the foolishness of a silly girl to intrude on his work, except part of him questioned that.

He had never allowed time to pursue anything but work and what he had to do for Dumbledore. Besides the fact he was so devoted to Lily the thought never crossed his mind, he really had never given himself a chance to live a little. Obviously, he had been with women before, he _was_ a death eater at a point, but he had not seriously put any thought in it and it had certainly not been any more than what it was; a quick moment of pleasure and a release of all the stress.

He slammed his hand down on the work table, knocking over several ingredients in the process. What was he thinking she was a student, _his _apprentice and he was not about to cross that line by making allowing her to pursue her little fascination. He was basically twice her age! He could be her father.

He actually laughed a little at that. Yes, technically he could have been, but he was never that irrational to allow that to happen at such a young age. He was in no way like James Potter that apparently couldn't even mutter a contraception spell before he took his pants off. No, it was not possible he would have ever allowed himself to become a father at nineteen to twenty years of age. He was not a fool.

He caught sight of the spilled ingredients and cleaned them up with a spell before putting them quickly back into the storeroom and going into his private quarters. He needed to get his mind off the thoughts he was having. He quickly scanned over his bookshelves before selecting a nice thick book written in runes to read through. If this couldn't clear his mind of his thoughts on the girl he was obviously under the Imperius curse he decided wryly.

He flipped through the pages and started translating the text that he had went through many times before. Even done before, it was still a tedious task and would take a good bit of concentration to work through again. Sadly for Severus though, he had a great memory and at that moment he decided it was indeed a curse. With that he threw the book down in frustration.

He could not quit thinking of the way she felt up against him, the scent he caught coming off of her. She was so much shorter than him her head barely reaching the bottom of his chin. He had never paid that much attention before to the difference, probably because he didn't ever care.

He had been feeling strange ever since the episode with Weasley the other night. The idiot had unknowingly planted a seed in his head and he cursed the fact the boy was able to cause him such confusion. He remembered the way her hand felt in his and couldn't help but think he wouldn't mind holding it again. It was so soft and small, so much like her; even after the war she remained untainted, pure.

Did he care about her? How could he? She was his apprentice, his former student his mind shouted again. He was losing his mind; maybe these were finally the effects of dealing with all the stress of dealing with the war coming through. His mind was striving for something more normal so it attached to the first female that paid him any attention.

He almost kissed her, the thought hit him. When he caught her looking at his mouth and he grabbed her chin the thought flashed through his mind to just give her what she wanted. It probably would have had the most undesired consequences but during that split second he didn't care. That was when he snapped back to reality. He had withstood the Dark Lord he could withstand a nineteen year old girl.

A thought suddenly flashed across his mind. She had slipped him a potion. It was the only thing he could imagine that would cause him to act this way, he had never acted like this before. Not even with Lily. His mind started picturing the way she had looked at him, pressed so close to his body. Oh bloody hell he was going to murder that girl. With that he stormed from his private quarters heading straight to hers.

**A/N: So what do you think? I really love how this chapter turned out and hope to keep this style throughout the story if everyone likes it. Up next, does Severus confront Hermione? What will happen? Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

Hermione returned to her room to find Ginny sitting on her bed, lying on her stomach, with a book propped open. It was very unlike Ginny to read so Hermione was a little shocked. Nonetheless, she went over and sat beside the girl that had become her best friend since her and Ron broke up, ironically.

They were always close, but it seemed her dating Ginny's brother had caused some awkwardness for the girl that Hermione hadn't been aware of until she broke it off. She could understand though, she certainly couldn't confide in how nice of a snog she had had with Ron to his sister. Now they were able to fully confide in one another and Hermione had to admit having another girl to share everything with was rather nice.

"Ginny Weasley, are you actually reading a book?" Hermione tapped her on the shoulder and laughed when she jumped, apparently not realizing someone else was in the room with her.

"It was lying on your desk and there was nothing else to do so I thought why not? Is this one of Professor Snape's books? It looks like his writing in the margins." Ginny showed Hermione the book with a curious look in her eyes before flipping through some more pages until she found more of his writing and showed it to Hermione before she began reading it.

Hermione had honestly forgotten she had left this book in her room. It was the one on advanced healing potions he had handed to her to continue her research the day after Ron showed up. She couldn't believe he hadn't already asked for it back, she had had it for almost a week and normally he was pretty impatient about how long his books were out of his office.

"Yes it is. Why?" Hermione wondered why Ginny would even care. Sure Ginny had respected Severus after the war, but it wasn't as if she really liked him.

Ginny looked at Hermione with a look that plainly said are you really that dense. "He's bloody brilliant that's why! I never would have thought of these substitutions and they certainly make things a lot simpler."

Hermione forgot Ginny was planning on becoming a healer. Of course she would have been interested in the book and what all he had to say about adjusting the potions. She felt bad for not showing it to her earlier.

"So, I know you didn't break into my room on the off chance I would have a book that would interest you so what is your real reason for being here?"

Ginny pretended to look hurt but broke out into a grin and closed the book, sitting up to face Hermione. "I think Harry is going to propose."

Hermione almost laughed at how serious Ginny said it, even with a smile taking over her whole face. That was one thing she loved about being best friends with her. One never knew what to expect from her and it was nice break from how predictable most of her friends were.

"Oh! I'm so happy for you two!" Hermione leaned over giving her a hug. "But wait, what makes you think he's going to propose?"

Hermione began to get a little worried. Ginny had become a pretty sensible girl but she still sometimes looked a little too far into things, especially when it came to relationships. She only hoped it wasn't the case with this, or then Ginny would be seriously let down.

"Well I found the box, of course!" Ginny sat back on her heels smiling smugly.

"You saw the ring?"

Hermione was shocked. She knew Harry could be dense at times but she figured he was brighter than just to leave a ring lying around, especially with how nosey Ginny was.

Ginny let out an exasperated sigh. "No, he accioed it right before I could look, but I know that's what it was because why else wouldn't he want me to see it?"

Hermione had to admit it made sense. She was so happy for her two best friends but she couldn't help but feel a stab of loneliness. Ginny apparently noticed it because she quickly shot out a sympathetic hand towards her own.

"Oh, Hermione, you'll find someone who will make you just as happy one day."

"I have." Hermione heard looked up to see the shocked expression on Ginny's face.

"Then what is the problem, Hermione?" Ginny's expression was instantly transformed to one of utter confusion.

Hermione had a wave of thoughts hit her at once. She wanted so bad to tell Ginny and confide in someone, but at the same time she knew it probably wasn't a good idea. Severus was twice her age basically and even if Ginny was her best friend she knew she would have a hard time understanding Hermione's feelings.

She was at a crossroads. Torn between the need to tell someone her secret and fear of what would happen if the found out. Finally, the need to confide won, surprisingly for Hermione. Was he causing her to lose all of her rationality?

"I can never be with him, on top of the fact he will never look at me the same."

Now Ginny was completely confused. Hermione could tell by the look on the girl's face she had lost all sense of what was going on so Hermione decided to just get straight to the facts.

"I'm falling for Severus Snape."

Ginny's mouth dropped, her face turned the red that all the Weasleys were known for, and then, to the utter shock of Hermione, she squealed.

"You have a thing for our professor?"

"_Your _professor," Hermione corrected, "_I_ am no longer a student here. I am just his apprentice."

Even as she corrected Ginny, Hermione began to worry. Would everyone still see him as her professor? If they did she could lose her apprenticeship if these feelings she was having caused her to act on them. Then another fear went through her mind. If they judged him still as her professor he could be thrown into Azkaban for consorting with a student, even if she technically wasn't his student.

"Look Ginny, please don't tell anyone. I don't want it getting out. I _am _his apprentice so people might look at it odd."

"You like someone twice your age and you are worried about what people will think since you are his apprentice?" Ginny laughed then seemed to realize how anxious Hermione was.

She quickly sobered up and scooted over to be beside Hermione and put one arm around her. "I'm just kidding. I'm glad you have found someone to make you happy. Honestly, it makes sense; he's as bright as they come. Only seems natural you'd fall for him."

When Ginny finished what she was saying Hermione knew she had made the right choice in telling her and was almost mad at herself for doubting Ginny in the first place. She really was a great friend.

At that moment, they both heard a loud knock on Hermione's door. She and Ginny both looked at each other bewildered, wondering who in the world could be so anxious to see her. Hermione quickly jumped off the bed and opened the door to see Severus standing at her door looking madder than she had seen him in a while.

"You have some explaining to do." He pushed past her, ignoring her protests that it wasn't appropriate for him to be in her rooms. He looked around and noticed Ginny looking like she was about to fall out from shock sitting on Hermione's bed. "Miss Weasley, out!"

Ginny wasted no time in getting off the bed and giving Hermione a quick squeeze of the hand and a sympathetic glance as she scrambled out of the room. As the door closed behind her, Hermione turned around furious.

"You have no right to order someone out of _my _rooms!" She thought about pulling her wand out on him, but managed to quickly see reason. She would be hexed across the room before she even had time to think of a spell.

"You have no right to slip me a potion!" He swiftly made his way over to her and stood glowering down at her. For Hermione's part she was so confused she didn't even know where to begin.

She looked up at him questioningly. "Sir, why would I slip you a potion?"

The minute it was out of her mouth she could feel him in her mind trying to see if she was telling the truth. She felt as if ice had been poured over her. He was in her mind, and while he wouldn't find what he was looking for, what would he find?

She quickly broke eye contact and moved to face the wall.

"Don't you walk away from me, you slipped me a potion. Why else would I be having these insane thoughts going through my mind?" He walked over and spun her around, holding her shoulder in his grip.

Hermione held a look of defiance and found herself once again, stepping closer. "Surely, sir, someone of your knowledge would notice if someone of my level in potions tried to sneak anything to you."

It was at that moment that Severus realized she was right. He would have noticed it if she had been trying to slip him a potion. Which brought up another, much more disturbing, realization; everything he had been thinking about the girl was of his own free will.

He looked down at her and snatched his hand back, running it through his hair trying to make sense of the whole situation. He didn't even notice Hermione reaching for his arm until he felt her hand wrap around it and her body take yet another antagonizing step closer.

"Sir, are you ok?"

The smell of her hair was just noticeable and he found it was driving him insane. He dared to glance down at her, the whole time fighting between his mind, his body, and his heart. Why the bloody hell was he having these feelings about a previous student of his?

In his whole span of teaching he had never crossed the line of a professional student and instructor relationship. In fact, he stayed as far away from it as one could think humanly possible. There was pride to be had, he felt, that he had never been swayed by any student even though he started teaching incredibly young.

He searched her eyes and he couldn't believe this was the same bushy-haired girl that walked into his class so all those years ago. She had grown into a woman, and a very lovely one at that.

He was not probing into her mind now, but he could see all he needed to without it. The hurt from the war, pain she would never forget, a hardness there that would never go away. Underneath that though, he could tell a fire was still there.

"Severus?" She took another tentative step closer.

Maybe it was the fire he saw smoldering in her eyes or maybe it was the way she whispered his first name, but something caused him to lose control and next thing he knew he snatched her to him, completely closing what little distance was left, and crashed his lips onto hers.

Hermione let out a gasp as he pulled her to him and she felt his lips meet her own. She couldn't believe the bliss that was spreading through her entire body.

He tasted sweet, spicy, exotic, and every other flavor imaginable mixed together. His lips moved against hers roughly and she found she enjoyed kissing him more than she had ever enjoyed kissing Ron.

She moaned and reached up to tangle her hand in his hair earning a low moan from him back.

Hermione slid her tongue over Severus' lips to gain entrance and deepen the kiss and quickly found herself feeling very cold and not at all kissing Severus Snape anymore.

To say she was confused was an understatement. He had just been kissing her and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Then she tried to deepen it and he pushes her away? What was going on?

"Severus, what is it? Why did you stop?" She moved to try to get closer to him but found an outstretched arm in her face keeping her from going any closer.

He looked at her, almost agonizingly, before clearing his throat.

"That should have never happened and I apologize. I don't know what came over me and I promise it will not happen again."

It felt as if all air had been taken away. Just a moment ago it seemed as if her dream had come true and now he was taking it all back.

"Why can't it happen again?" She hated the fact that she felt her eyes watering up. She couldn't allow him to see her cry, especially just over the thought of never kissing him again. He would run for the door for sure.

"I am your professor, you are my student. It is completely inappropriate."

Hermione scoffed and slapped his arm down. Was that all? That was his only argument? Well she had one for him too.

"You are not my professor and I am not your student. I am your apprentice and I am grown enough to decide who I want to go snogging, if it just so happens to be my former professor so what?"

Severus looked at her like she had grown two extra heads like Hagrid's beast Fluffy.

"You are delusional. You have no idea what the consequences of such actions could be." He glanced at her again before quickly walking past her and out of the room.

Hermione just stood there in shock. This day had definitely taken a turn. For the best or the worst she hadn't decided yet. One thing she had decided on though suddenly came to her mind and it caused her to giggle out loud, much to her chagrin.

His lips really weren't as thin as they appeared.

**A/N: So sorry this took so long to post. I've been super busy and haven't even had the time to reply to messages so don't be too upset! I hope you like this chapter, I think I'm satisfied with it. Not as much as the last chapter but when I am having to fit in time to type this super quick I think it'll be ok. Thank you to my reviewers! You give me inspiration to keep writing. Now I need some ideas for the next chapter so review what you think! **


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione couldn't even remember herself leaving her rooms, but here she was almost running through the halls of Hogwarts heading straight for the dungeons.

If that man thought he could just snog her then leave and take it all back he had another thing coming. She might not have much experience when it came to relationships, but she was about to take what little she had and prove to him that she was no longer a silly student at this school. With a flick of her wrist she quickly cast a charm on her hair making it fix itself in a loose, gently curled bun with tendrils floating around her face and neck.

No, after this Severus Tobias Snape would never see her as a student again. She had to fight down a blush. Hermione was never one to be this forward but he had crossed a line and she wasn't going to sit back and allow him to believe it would all just revert back to normal after what he did. She cast another quick charm effectively shortening her robes and lowering the neckline.

She swept past portraits ignoring their stares and whispers about what she was up to and finally made it to the front of his office door. She quickly cast yet another charm to add a light sweep of blush to her cheeks and some mascara on her eyelashes before blasting the door open. She was sure she would get a snide comment about impulsive Gryffindors for it, but right now she didn't care.

She stepped quickly into his office expecting him to be bent over papers only to find his desk empty. A quick scan of the room showed her that the whole room was empty in fact. Well, that wasn't what she expected. A part of her felt a twinge of disappointment and being denied the chance to make an entrance and confront him, but that was quickly replaced by anger. How dare he hide from her?

He was a spy for Dumbledore having to lie to Voldemort and he was hiding from _her_? She was vaguely shocked at his actions, but quickly shook it off and stormed out of the room as she jerked her wand up, managing to knock the stack of papers that needed to be graded off his desk.

It took all she could do not to blast the portraits as she walked back by them the whole time wondering where in the world the insufferable man could be. She had managed to make her way back to the first floor and was passing the Defense Against Dark Arts classroom when she caught sight of him.

Fortunately for them both the hallway was seemingly empty because before Hermione could even think about what she was doing she walked behind him and, catching him off guard, yanked him around and shoved him into the wall.

Hermione didn't know what to think about being eye level with the end of Severus' ebony wand, she probably deserved it to be fair, but she realized catching him by surprise probably wasn't her best decision. Too late now though, she thought as she glared into his obsidian eyes that could entrance her way too easily for comfort.

She snapped herself out of it. "Put your wand down, you silly man!" Hermione yanked his arm down and noticed his face go from a defensive state to one of shock at what she was doing.

She glared up at him, her forearm pressing against his chest, keeping him against the wall. "Do you think you can just kiss me like that and then just run out of my room like some bloody coward?"

He opened his mouth up to respond but quickly closed it as she jerked her own wand up towards his face.

"Don't answer that. You can't take it back. I know you enough Severus Snape to know you don't allow lust to take over quite that easily to allow you to loose rational thinking. It would have taken something much more than lust to cause you to do that."

She saw him put on a face of disgust and look down his long nose at her, almost breathing out what he said next. "Are you insinuating, Miss Granger, that I have _feelings_ for you? You are sadly mistaken then and a bit naïve. You must know every man, even one as disciplined as myself gives into urges every now and then."

Hermione bit her lip, contemplating what he said, hesitating for a split second wondering if he was actually telling the truth. He was right, all men had urges, but he couldn't have made it through the war if he was so easily distracted by such urges as to go and kiss someone that under most opinions would be completely out of bounds. She decided not to think anymore and sheepishly looked up at him before giving up all sense of rationality.

She quickly lifted herself up on her toes and wrapped her hand around his neck, pulling him down all in one swift motion to meet her lips to his in a kiss that rivaled the one he had given her earlier. She felt him tense up at first, but within a couple of seconds it seemed he gave up all pretenses and wrapped his arms around her pulling her closer to him.

The feel of his tongue raking across her lips caused Hermione to let out a small squeak from shock. The fact that when she had done the same to him earlier it had caused him to snap out of whatever state of mind he had been in and now he was the one initiating it shocked her but she definitely wasn't complaining. She never would have thought that her stern, hard-hearted potion's professor would be this good at kissing, but good was an understatement.

His tongue slid across hers and she thought she would melt on the spot. Fortunately, he had a tight grip on her back or she was sure she would have been unable to stand up. Her hands found their way into his raven hair and she smirked into his kiss. His hair wasn't as greasy as it looked and she wondered if he created a charm to make it appear like that to keep up the image he had portrayed for so long.

Both of their breathing was extremely heavy when they finally broke the kiss and warm golden brown eyes met hard obsidian ones. Severus took a deep breath, still not letting go from the hold on her, and broke the silence. "You must know this is unacceptable. Nobody will approve."

A smirk played on Hermione's lips as she fiddled with his collar. "Since when have you ever cared what people approved of?"

He was starting to reply when he suddenly stopped and Hermione felt his arms go straight to his side and his body tense back up to its normal rigidly straight form. She looked at him questioningly before noticing he was looking not at her but at something behind her.

"Miss Granger get your filthy hands off of me, I assure you I do not care how they portray cravats being worn in your silly muggle movies." With that he sidestepped her hands and swiftly turned on his heel, causing his signature robes to billow behind him as he quickly walked away.

Hermione only followed him for a second with her eyes before turning around to discover what had caused him to abruptly walk off the way he did. Her eyes widened as she saw Ginny standing there looking like her jaw was going to fall off.

There was a moment where Ginny just continued to stare at Hermione as If she had lost her mind before finally closing her mouth just to open it again. "What the bloody hell was that? Were you just _snogging_ Snape?"

Apparently, admitting she had feelings for her former professor and actually being caught with him were two completely different things. Hermione clenched her jaw before marching over to the younger girl.

"Would you keep quiet before someone hears you?" She yanked the girl in the direction of her rooms and almost fell out when she heard Ginny's reply.

"You weren't too worried about someone seeing you with his tongue down your throat."

Hermione glared back at her to see her smiling smugly and felt all her anger disappear as she felt a blush, that had nothing to do with her makeup, creep up her neck. Really, she should learn to pick friends that weren't so blunt. The thought only lasted a second though as she recalled the kiss dreamily before feeling something hit her in the back.

She turned around to a scowling Ginny. "If you are going to tow me to your rooms at least get there before you come to an abrupt stop and cause me to run into you because of your fantasizing." Ginny scowled a second longer before smiling and jokingly pushing Hermione forward.

"You really are too easy to pick at, Hermione. Come on, I want details!" That was all it took for Hermione to grab the girl's hand and drag her, running, to her rooms.

When they got there Hermione quickly shut the door and slid down in with an uncharacteristically girlish giggle escaping her. She never thought she would have had the chance to kiss Severus, much less twice in one day and with him kissing him back. Oh, the kiss, she blushed again, thinking about it.

The way he kissed her was truly the most amazing sensation she had ever experienced, which either showed how incredibly inexperienced she was or how absolutely, pleasantly surprising, wonderful of a kisser he was. She let out a content sigh before snapping her eyes over at Ginny who had perched herself on the edge of Hermione's bed again.

"He is amazing." A grin spread across her features like she had never worn before.

Ginny beamed from where she was sitting and rested her chin on her hands. "So, fess up, what happened when I left? Something had to have happened for you to have him pinned against the wall in the middle of a hallway where anybody could have seen you two." Ginny paused before skimming over Hermione. "And did you fix your hair and makeup?" She let out a gasp. "Hermione Granger is that cleavage and thigh I see? I don't think I've ever seen this side of you before," she smirked impishly.

They both started laughing, knowing Ginny was right. Hermione never put much thought into how she looked and the fact she had was a dead giveaway that she had done it for a specific reason. Since she had Severus pushed up against a wall, that reason was pretty obvious.

Hermione got into a more comfortable position against the door before diving in and telling Ginny what all had happened after she had been told to leave by Severus.

"He ran away?" Ginny looked in about as much shock as Hermione had been after the whole ordeal.

Hermione had just finished telling her what all happened after she left and she was thankful that Ginny had remained quiet until she finished telling about what all occurred in her room earlier. She was sure she wouldn't have been able to describe the kiss if she had been interrupted.

"Yes! I didn't know what to think! All I could manage was to realize his bloody lips really weren't all that thin." She scowled, not liking to look back at probably one of the only moments in her life she hadn't been able to put logical thoughts together.

"His lips aren't…oh!" Ginny's head snatched up. "So what are his lips like?" A mischievous grin spread across her face.

Hermione blushed crimson, rivaling the Weasley blush itself, at that comment. Ginny laughed at her. Hermione wasn't a kiss and tell kind of girl and was shocked she had actually managed to tell Ginny all she had so far. There was no way she would be able to describe what merely kissing him did to her.

She quickly avoided the question by going on into what happened after he left and how she got mad and went down to his dungeons to find him only to find them empty.

"What was the point in making a mess of all the papers he had to grade?"

"I, I don't know…so he would know I came by?"

Ginny looked at her pointedly. "He knew you came by when you shoved him up against a wall."

"Well, obviously, I didn't know I was going to find him and shove him up against a wall." Hermione's trademark tone came through and Ginny laughed again at her, obviously enjoying what her friend was going through.

"So how was that? Shoving him against a wall I mean? I'm honestly pretty shocked he didn't hex you into nonexistence"

"Well he did snatch his wand out reflexively but it didn't take much to get him to put it away," Hermione said innocently not realizing what she had implied.

"Obviously," Ginny mimicked Hermione's early tone playfully. "Why would he keep it out when he was preoccupied with other things," she winked at her suggestively, dodging a book Hermione had decided to throw at her laughing.

There was a pause where both girls were caught up in their own respective thoughts before Hermione continued with the conversation.

"So what all did you see?"

"Oh not much, honestly, just him holding you, which I might add was a shock in itself, I just assumed the rest and you didn't deny it." Ginny suddenly ducked her head and looked a mixture between being sick and amazed. "I never thought I'd see Professor Snape that relaxed or with someone in his arms."

Hermione laughed at her friend's reaction. To be honest with herself, she couldn't really blame her. If she had of been the one witnessing Severus holding someone in his arms she would have had the same reaction. He definitely didn't come off as someone who would ever have any form of romantic feelings, certainly not enough to lose his stiff demeanor.

She started smiling again, not that she had every really stopped, realizing she was the reason he was starting to lose it little by little, at least around her if no one else. It was a thought that caused her to have flutters bounce around in her stomach. She couldn't believe how lucky she was.

Most people would probably disagree with that statement. How many people would think they were lucky to have the admiration of Severus Snape, the man really did come off as completely rude and cold-hearted to everyone. It was a front she was more than glad to be finally breaking through.

Ginny must have realized Hermione had gotten lost in her thoughts because next thing Hermione knew the book she threw was being thrown back at her. She flicked her wand, freezing it in mid-air directly in front of her face before letting it fall in her lap. Hermione was about to glare at her when she noticed Ginny's expression and stopped.

There was a genuinely happy smile on the girl's face and she got off the bed and gave Hermione a huge hug. When she let go she looked at her for a moment before she spoke.

"I'm so happy for you, both of you. You both really need this. You haven't been exactly yourself since the war, and I doubt Snape has ever had a chance for true happiness. Maybe with the help of each other you can both find it."

Hermione was shocked. She expected Ginny to be happy for her, but for Severus too. She really underestimated her too much and was constantly glad she was proven wrong. She shot a warm smile back at Ginny before enveloping her in a hug in return.

"Just one problem though, how will everyone else react?" Hermione looked around worriedly.

Ginny looked at her sympathetically. "We will figure that out when and if you two officially get together, no need in worrying about it right now."

They jerked back from each other when a loud knock was heard on the door again. They looked at each other strangely before Hermione walked over to open it. She really had no idea who could be visiting her rooms, although apparently they had turned into the social gathering spot of the evening.

She certainly wasn't expecting the man that she saw when she opened them up and was shocked he had actually come looking for her. She figured after being caught by Ginny she would have to fight again to get him to open back up to her like he had started to. They stared at each for a moment before he glanced over noticing Ginny still standing behind Hermione.

"Miss-" Severus was cut off by Ginny interrupting him, something that if not for the present circumstances would surely have gotten twenty points taken from Gryffindor and a week's worth of detention.

"I'm just leaving." Ginny grinned at both of them before, once again, hurrying out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Severus looked Hermione up and down, seemingly noticing her hair and change of apparel for the first time, not that she'd given him much of a chance earlier. Hermione blushed and fidgeted with the ends of her sleeves, looking nervously around.

"Miss Gran- Hermione," he corrected himself.

Her head shot up at him using her given name. She was not used to hearing him be so familiar with anyone and she felt those dratted butterflies flutter in her stomach again.

He opened his mouth as if to say something then clearing his throat seemed to think better of it and crossed his arms slowly.

"Miss Weasley has been in your rooms an awful lot lately. Doesn't she have schoolwork she should be working on instead of sneaking around the halls and gossiping?"

Normally, Hermione would cringe at his tone but she knew it was his way of asking what all Ginny had seen and if they had to worry about it being all over the school the next day. She couldn't blame him for being worried, they were walking a very thin line and people would either grudgingly accept the situation or create hell because of it.

"She won't spread gossip and she didn't see anything that would mar your reputation too bad."

"So she won't run and tell her dunderhead of a brother?"

"No. Just because her brother is dense doesn't mean she is."

"I'm very well aware of Miss Weasley's intellect, her personal prerogatives, however, are to be considered carefully." He darted his eyes towards her face before taking a small step towards her.

It was all the signal she needed and she quickly stepped into his arms and wrapped her own around his waist, inhaling his scent. His body tensed up slightly, and then hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around her as well. Hermione dismissed it, understanding it would take time for him to get used to physical contact after keeping people at bay for so long.

"Why me?" he whispered, resting his chin in her hair while at the same time trying to keep from inhaling her scent too much but failing miserably.

"What?" Hermione was shocked at his question, not so much what he said but the fact that he said it. She never expected him to be so open this quickly, not that she minded, but she didn't know quite how to answer his question.

"Why me? You could have anyone your age, yet you choose someone twice your age that has put up walls against the world. Why go after someone broken when you could have anyone else?"

She lifted her head sadly, forcing him to look into her eyes. "We are all broken to a point after the war. Besides, the things that are worth the most in life are those that one has to fight for."

Time seemed to stand still as they both soaked in what she had just said. It said more than any lengthy explanation could have and they were both shocked at the profoundness of it. Severus interrupted the silence by clearing his throat and shifting to bring a hand under her chin tilting it up.

"I haven't done…_this_," he said slowly referring to a relationship, "ever. I have hardened myself and I'm not sure I can give you what you are looking for, or if I even want to yet."

"I don't care."

"This doesn't make any sense. I was your professor." His eyebrows scrunched together in frustration at losing his sensibility around her.

This time Hermione grabbed his chin and pulled his face down to look at her. "It makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense, because it makes no sense at all."

Severus smirked at her contradicting remark before glancing down at her lips that seemed to keep drawing him to them repeatedly today. Hermione caught where his eyes were fixated and slowly bit her lip nervously. They slowly looked into each other's eyes and stayed like that for a good bit, searching for something that neither of them knew what was, before slowly leaning into each other and sharing a slow, tender kiss.

They broke away only momentarily to look at each other again before joining their lips again. The kiss they were sharing now was unlike the other two they had shared that had both been heated and full of passion. This was tender and slow, as if they were just now truly discovering each other and were almost afraid of what they would find, yet trusting it would be to both of their benefits.

Severus slowly lifted his hand and buried it in Hermione's hair, slowly undoing what she had magically done up for him. Hermione moaned and leaned into him, running her tongue over his lips, needing to feel and taste his mouth with hers. He quickly complied with her wants and just like that they were completely lost in each other.

The sun was now setting outside so the room was getting quite dark as they slowly and tentatively started exploring whatever it was they were creating. A fire crackled to life in Hermione's fireplace and she vaguely noticed it and was awed at how wonderful Severus was at unspoken wandless magic. He truly was a powerful wizard and she shivered at the thought that he could be hers.

He pulled away to look at her for just a moment before chastely kissing her on the lips before letting his mouth fall to her jaw line going around to gently nip at her ear with his teeth causing all sorts of sensations to run through Hermione. She moaned and gripped his hair in one hand as her other hand rested on his neck, her nails slightly digging into his skin.

There was a slight pause in his ministrations where he seemed to be contemplating what he was doing before he moaned and slid his hand from her back to the side of her waist, toying with the edge of her shirt while kissing her neck landing at her collarbone.

Hermione gasped out loud when she felt his teeth massage and nip at her skin. There was a rush of heat that flooded through her and she suddenly had the thought that a fire probably wouldn't have been needed except for lighting purposes at that moment. She arched her back, pressing her chest into him.

"Severus." His name came out in a moan and in response she got a low growl from him before he bunched up her shirt in his fist and rested his head on her shoulder.

She worried she had done something wrong until she heard him talking to her.

"If we keep going, I won't be able to stop and if I'm correct in my assumptions you have never experienced much past what we are doing."

The grip on his hair tightened as her pulse quickened at the thought of going farther with him tonight. Did she want that just yet or did she want to wait and see where this led first? He was right in assuming she had never gone much farther than this. Ron had managed to feel her up once over her shirt, but that was it. They never had much time for more, nor had she ever really wanted to.

Not like right now with Severus, her whole body ached to be with him and the thought was sending sparks throughout her whole body.

She took a deep breath. "Do you care about me?"

He lifted his head off of her shoulder, looking into her eyes. "Very much so."

His reply shocked Hermione and by the look on his face it shocked him as well. She wasn't expecting that much so soon, but she wasn't upset by it and in fact found a smile spreading across her face.

"Then I want this."

He looked at her for a moment before seeming to force himself back to reality. "Then you will see why I can't."

He quickly hurried on when he saw the look of hurt taking over her face. "It's not that I don't want to, but you have basically admitted you haven't been any farther than this and I won't take advantage of you the first day anything happens between us. Please understand my reservations."

The problem was she did understand. He wanted to make sure it was going to work, that they weren't just caught up in the moment and then he would have to live with the fact he took her virginity and then left. It made her almost regret the fact her and Ron hadn't done anything. She was sure if they had of he wouldn't be so hesitant.

"I understand," she whispered looking at the ground before looking back up at him.

A log in the fire popped, startling them both. "I must get back to my quarters before someone notices I'm missing and comes looking for me."

"Ok. This isn't it though is it? We won't turn our backs on…what we have discovered." She was hesitant to their feelings for fear the word would scare him off.

The fire reflected in his eyes as he looked down at her and Hermione couldn't help but think how incredible he looked at that moment. He slowly brushed a hand across her face.

"I don't develop feelings for someone very easily; I wouldn't give up on it, no matter how strange it may seem, quite that easily."

With a nod of her head, Severus caught her chin and kissed her again, allowing it to go on longer than he originally intended. When they finally broke apart he embraced her tightly before letting go.

"Good evening, Hermione."

"Good evening, Severus."

And with that he left, leaving her feeling significantly lonelier than she ever had in her rooms before.

**A/N: Ok so there is a really long chapter to make up for me not having time to update lately! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it and weren't too disappointed that things didn't go any further. I really wanted it to but the more I thought about it, the less realistic it seemed that they'd just jump into bed with one another after only one day of interaction. Both of them are too sensible and responsible for that. On another note I probably won't update again until Wednesday where I can focus on studying since I have 4 tests coming up Tuesday as I might have said before. I apologize and hopefully after that I will be able to update on a every other day basis again. Thanks for all the reviews and please continue to tell me what you think and what you'd like to see! **


	7. Chapter 7

"Well, well, well. Looks like Hogwarts will have something besides the war to talk about now." A snide smile spread across Filch's features as he watched the normally impeccable Head of Slytherin come out of the room he knew to be Hermione Granger's looking slightly disheveled.

All of the years Filch had been caretaker of Hogwarts he had been denied the joy of catching a teacher and a student together. It was something that would cause the utmost disturbance around the school and would practically guarantee expulsion for the student and a trip straight to Azkaban for the professor. He snickered to himself just thinking about the chaos that would ensue.

"Come on Mrs. Norris, I think McGonagall would like to hear about this immediately, she would."

With his trusted cat beside him, he began the long walk to Headmistress McGonagall's office joyfully imagining the kind of tortures that would await Snape to cause him to admit the truth about him and the girl. He then scowled realizing days of torturing wizards into confessions were over. All the ministry had to do now was force a couple of drops of Veritarserum down someone's throat and they had no choice but to answer truthfully whatever was asked.

Finally, he came to the gargoyle that was now the entrance to McGonagall's office since she became headmistress of the school.

"Figgy pudding," he muttered the password distastefully. He never would understand what the heads of this school were thinking, constantly putting food as the password to their office. One would think they could think of something a little bit brighter than that.

He climbed the stairs and stepped into her office, which hadn't seemed to change at all since Dumbledore had left. He scowled remembering how fond she was of the man and made the conclusion it must have been some sentimental reason that caused her to leave it the way it was.

McGonagall's head rose from where it was leaning over some parchment she had been scribbling away on to look at who had entered her office. She slowly raised an eyebrow when her eyes met the form of Filch. He never visited for any other reason but to get students into trouble.

"Who, may I presume, has caused trouble in the corridors now, Argus?" He started to scowl again at her presumptuous air, but changed it to an odd sort of grin when he imagined how she would react when he told her what he saw.

"Not a student this time, Minerva, well not just a student." He chuckled and shuffled closer to her desk.

Minerva raised her eyebrow at the comment, but just continued to stare at him forcing him to go on.

"No, no, looks like even heroic Slytherins still find a way to go back to their true personality. Deceitful, nasty vermin."

Filch normally held a sort of respect for Severus because of how coarsely he handled the students, unlike most of the teachers here who, in his opinion, coddled them ridiculously. His joy from finally getting a professor in serious trouble, however, was overriding that respect. Plus, he was enjoying having the upper hand on Minerva, something that didn't happen too often.

"What ever are you going on about?" He flashed a toothy grin as she finally snapped, giving him the reaction he was looking for.

"Don't you know headmistress? Our hero Severus Snape is now visiting the bedchambers of one Hermione Granger."

If he hadn't of been paying so close of attention he would have missed the slight thinning of her mouth that was the only sign she registered what he said.

"And what did you see to make you assume such obscenities as I assure you, Severus and Miss Granger both would know the dire consequences of such actions."

"Only of him coming out of her bedroom, madam," he paused just a second to allow the next part of his statement hit full force. "With robes slightly disheveled and his hair messed up. I think we both know Severus Snape, never allows himself to appear less than perfect. A habit he picked up from following the dark lord, I presume."

Minerva shot him a sharp look at his last statement before hurriedly questioning him further.

"So you did not actually witness anything occurring between the two?"

Filch smile that was on his face quickly fell away as he realized what she was getting at. Even with Snape's history nobody would take his word with nothing to show besides concrete evidence. That meant even if McGonagall slightly believed him, she wouldn't take any action either.

"Plus," she interrupted his thoughts, "I might add Miss Granger is no longer a student, but his apprentice. While it is still strictly forbidden, it is not as severe as having relations with a student still actually enrolled in Hogwarts."

She slowly made a slight face, "Even if it involves a former student."

He scowled full on this time, not trying to hide his distaste at all. He should have known she wouldn't take immediate action. It would have been a miracle for her to order them there for questioning that easily seeing as she had a soft spot for both of them. Blasted Slytherins and Gryffindors always found a way to get out of everything, combine the two houses and it would be impossible to prove anything.

With a glance at Mrs. Norris, he turned around and headed to the door and was surprised at what McGonagall said next.

"Keep an eye on them, Argus, as will I. It will not do to have another scandal on Hogwarts already long record."

He sniggered as he continued to walk away. She wanted to stop anything before a scandal emerged; he on the other hand wanted to catch it to allow the scandal to run rampant.

* * *

As the stone gargoyle closed, Minerva McGonagall was left alone with her thoughts. She quickly glanced at Albus Dumbledore's portrait, slightly aggravated that at all times for the man to decide to sleep he chose now. She let out a sigh and sat down in her chair.

Surely Severus and Hermione wouldn't be so brash as to allow an apprenticeship to go anywhere past that. It was unlike them both, completely, to allow a professional relationship to lead to anything more. Especially Severus, he hadn't had any semblance relationship since Lily that she could remember.

Not only was his devotion to Lily, the whole reason he played such an important role in the war, going against the accusation, but the fact that he was twice the girl's age and had been her professor! She had never seen Severus act any way but professional with students when it came to matters of relationships. He didn't even treat the Malfoy boy kindly now that she thought of it, just allowed him to get away with a few things here or there.

It was crazy to think they would have evolved into anything more than a professor and a student. Although, she couldn't quite figure out why he would be in Hermione's rooms and what Argus had said was right; Severus never had a hair or article of clothing out of place. How much faith could one put in Argus though?

Minerva knew along with everyone else how much the man loved to see students in trouble and she could only imagine how much joy he would get out of getting a professor in trouble as well. This alone made her doubt what he told her, thinking maybe in his excitement he read more into what he saw than was there.

Despite how illogical it all seemed though, she decided she would assuredly be keeping an eye on the two of them along with Argus on the off chance something had occurred.

* * *

The next morning, Hermione woke up extremely tired and immediately regretted not taking a sleeping potion where she would have been guaranteed sleep. Instead she ended up tossing and turning all night going over what had occurred between her and Severus over and over.

She couldn't help wonder if it had caused him to lose sleep also. Of course, she would never know. He would arrive looking impeccable as always. Even during the war, he managed to hide the stress and fatigue that, without a doubt, had to be almost unbearable. She smiled slowly getting out of bed to get dressed.

The fact that he was able to compose himself through whatever life threw at him was one of the things Hermione respected the most about him. She didn't know anyone else that could live with the torment he did during the war and appear completely unfazed. She was sure it was connected to how skilled he was with occlumency, but it was nonetheless impressive.

Hermione quickly brushed her teeth and was picking out what clothes to wear, since it was the weekend she didn't have to wear the uniform apprentice robes she normally did, when an owl flew up to her window and started pecking on it, waiting for her to let it in.

With a curious thought to who would be sending her mail she walked over and opened the window. She rarely ever got letters from anyone except from Harry and he had just written her the other day. She quickly untied the letter from the owl and gave it a treat before sitting at her desk to open it.

She quickly recognized the neat, spidery handwriting as Severus' once she opened the letter.

_Miss Granger,_

_ Due to the time it will take to prepare the next potion for your lesson you are expected to be in my office no later than eight o'clock this morning. _

_S. Snape_

Hermione stared at his neat signature, admiring the flourishes his hand was capable of creating when she jerked up, dropping the letter to the floor. She quickly glanced at the clock on the wall. It read 7:45, that meant she had fifteen minutes to get dressed and run to the dungeons.

That man better be glad I am an early riser even without much sleep, she thought to herself as she snatched on a pair of dark jeans and a blue long sleeve shirt. Sometimes she couldn't believe how he just assumed people would do his bidding with no warning. Really, if he wanted her down there so early he should have sent the owl at least an hour ago, not twenty minutes before the scheduled time.

She snatched her hair back in a messy bun as she ran out the door. It was lucky for her they had decided to put her rooms closer to the dungeons than they originally had planned to put her. Not only did it make more sense since she would spend most of her time working with Severus, but it made his sporadic last minute demands easier to deal with.

Even being closer to his office, she was still out of breath by the time she made it down the stairs and got to his door. She tried to catch her breath before hurriedly knocking on the door before allowing herself inside.

"Five more minutes, Miss Granger, and you would have been late." Severus was sitting at his desk making notes on a text he was reading, never even glancing up to greet her.

Hermione stood there frozen, not sure what to think. She didn't expect him to jump into showing his feelings constantly, but he was downright acting like nothing had happened at all. It left her feeling unsure of how to act, so with a questioning glance she decided to just follow along with him.

"I'm sorry, sir, I had just woken up and hadn't had time to fully get dressed."

"Not getting lazy, are we?"

"No sir, I just didn't sleep very well last night." A blush spread across her face as she recalled why she didn't sleep well last night.

Finally, Severus slowly looked up from what he was doing and eyed her warily. He slowly stood up and crossed his arms all while seemingly contemplating her motives. Hermione on her part, walked over to where the cauldron was sitting on a work table, all the while feeling his eyes following her.

"So, what are we working on today?" she interrupted the silence.

"Wolfsbane." The statement slowly left his lips as he looked at her even more questioningly.

A gasp left Hermione's lips; she hadn't expected him to teach her such a difficult potion just yet. As far as she knew, he was the only wizard in Britain that knew how to brew it properly. At least, he definitely had to keep a large supply in stock to have enough to fill all the orders he received.

"Is that a problem, Miss Granger?"

"No, of course not, I just didn't expect you to teach it to me so soon."

"Excuse me for assuming you were ready for such a potion. It really isn't as difficult as they make it out to be, most wizards would just rather wave a wand than to put in the time and effort required to brew wolfsbane." He walked up behind her, seeming to hesitate a moment, before moving to open the book he had laid out on the table.

"This is the recipe you will be using." The book was thrust under Hermione's nose before she had time to react.

She took the book from him looking down at the page, her eyes instantly drawn to the margin to find his handwriting. She became confused when she saw that they were blank, void of the normal scribbling that filled every space available.

"Sir, won't I be learning to make it with your directions?" Her hand moved to hand the book back.

"No. You will master this version and then I will teach you how to brew it the way I created." He pushed the book back towards her and noticed how confused she looked.

He sighed before continuing, letting his shoulders slightly relax and his face soften just a fraction. "My altered version is slightly more dangerous to brew. You will get the hang of this version first and then I will show you, slowly, how to do mine."

A smile graced her face at his remark. Even that small remark showed he cared and last night wasn't just some lie or something she had made up in her head like she was starting to believe. She went to take a step forward, hoping to snag a moment with him before they got too caught up in their work, when he stiffened back up.

"Our personal life will not enter into your time studying as my apprentice. The quicker I can finish teaching you everything I can, the easier this whole situation will become." With that he turned around preparing to start working on the potion.

Hermione tried not to let what he said hurt too badly, but it was hard not to do so when he was acting so cold towards her. She knew that was his personality and he was exactly right in insisting that they work as hard as they could to hurry her apprenticeship up. Even she, who constantly got away with things she shouldn't have because of being friends with Harry Potter, knew that there would be trouble if anyone heard of them being anything more than professional.

She sighed and moved over to stand beside him. This was going to be a long work day and not only because of the difficult potion that lay ahead.

* * *

It was noon before they finally took a break and he asked Hermione if she wanted to walk with him to eat in the Great Hall. He had been rather distant all morning and could tell it was bothering her but he knew it was necessary, if not also out of habit.

He was shocked the night before when he had said he cared about her. Up until then he really hadn't thought he had besides some annoying little fancy that he decided had to do with never having time for a relationship and her being the first female to ever act truly kind to him without wanting something in return. He decided after last night it was more than that.

Besides the fact she was half his age, it wouldn't have even bothered him that he had developed feelings for her. Her intelligence rivaled his and it was a nice change from all the dunderheads he normally had to deal with on a regular basis. She wasn't silly like most girls her age and, he smirked, she certainly wasn't bad to look at.

His thoughts were interrupted as they entered the Great Hall when a student bumped into Hermione shoving her into his side. His hands automatically caught her waist without him having time to realize what he was doing. She looked up at him right as he caught McGonagall's eyes staring at where his hands were.

He quickly shoved her off of him. "Miss Granger, I advise you to watch where you are walking from now on."

Without even waiting to see Hermione's reaction, which he assumed would be one of confusion and hurt, he marched up to sit at the head table in his normal spot ignoring the scrutinizing look he was receiving from McGonagall. He reached to spear a piece of roast onto his plate and was in the process of laying his napkin in his lap when he felt a small hand brush against his own.

With a jerk, he turned his head to look at her before resuming concentrating on the food on his plate. He wasn't expecting her to make such a forward move at the table but as he held her hand in his lap he couldn't say he particularly minded it. The fact he enjoyed having her near was an odd feeling he didn't quite know if he would ever get used to after so many years of shutting people out.

He couldn't say he was truly happy all those years by himself, unable to confide in what he was going through, physically and emotionally, fully with anyone. It did turn into a kind of existence that he had grown used to though and with that comes anxiety to change and allow someone else in his life.

"So Severus, have you been teaching Miss Granger anything new lately?" Filius Flitwick cheerfully interrupted his thoughts.

Severus dared a glance in Hermione's direction and almost allowed a small smile when he caught sight of her face turning red at the innocent comment that she seemed to have thought of in another way entirely.

His attention turned back towards Filius. "Yes, actually we started the basic recipe for Wolfsbane potion today."

"Not starting her out on yours then? Ah, probably better, it always did tend to be a bit tricky from what I've heard. Best get her used to the simpler one first."

Nothing else was said through the whole meal and Severus quickly finished and stood up to leave. As he walking out of the Great Hall he heard Hermione excusing herself from the table saying they had work to do on the potion and he felt a quiver of happiness knowing he hadn't told her when to meet him back at his office to continue work so she was making it up.

He scolded himself. It was foolish to allow a girl to have such a hold on him so quickly. Why was she, of all people, having this effect on him so quickly after so many years of not feeling anything towards anyone? Nothing could cause him to understand what the reason was, but then again maybe he wasn't supposed to understand.

He was walking through the main entrance right outside when he heard something that caught his attention. It was the Weasley girl calling out to Hermione. He stopped deciding to hear what she had to tell her since she was the only one who had any clue what was between them.

Better to keep an ear out to make sure she didn't betray Hermione. Even if she seemed sincere, the war had taught him that people can change sides very quickly no matter how earnest they appear. What he heard her say next shocked him. It was a warning.

"Filch saw him leave your room. I heard him muttering in the hallways last night about getting a student expelled and a professor sacked and thrown in Azkaban almost happily."

He turned to see Hermione's face harden; masking whatever was going on in her mind. He tried to get eye contact to use Legilimens but couldn't get her attention off the red head. That was why McGonagall kept looking at him strangely during lunch, the twit had ran and reported what he saw.

"Be careful Hermione." Ginny smiled sympathetically and squeezed the girl's hand after getting no response.

After Ginny left Hermione turned to him with the same determined look she had given Ginny. She was about to open her mouth to say something when he cut her off. There was no need in talking in the middle of the entrance where anyone could hear what was being said.

"My office, Miss Granger. Now." Narrowing his eyes slightly to add effect he turned on his heel and walked down the hall his robes billowing behind him.

When he got to his office, he realized Hermione had been almost running to keep up at him and he made a mental note to try to even his pace to match hers next time, or at least where she only had to walk briskly. He wouldn't be caught sauntering in the halls.

With a flick of his wand he wordlessly closed the door and set a silencing charm on the room. Leaning his weight on his hands which were curled into fists on his desk he looked up at Hermione, his hair slightly in his face.

She never gave him a chance to say anything before submitting herself to a constant babble of words.

"You'll be thrown in Azkaban? I'm not even your student anymore! And after all you did in the war! This is ludicrous!" She had started pacing the floor in front of his desk, her anger causing a few strands of hair to fall loose from where she had thrown it up earlier.

"They won't throw me in Azkaban. If they were it would already have been done." He stood up straight walking over to where she had stopped in her tracks at what he said.

"You realize he would have gone straight to McGonagall with the information. He wouldn't have kept it to himself. And if I know him at all, the nitwit probably made worse implications than what really went on."

Hermione's face went red before she sputtered on hotly. "Well of course he did! He's Filch and he did see you coming out of my rooms. At night, I might add! That doesn't look particularly well."

"Better at night than the next morning," he added dryly. Seeing her frown he slowly tucked her hair back behind her ear.

"If it worries you so much we can end it. Nothing much happened and I'm sure things-" He was cut off by her kissing him roughly before backing off.

"No."

A smile small tugged at his lips. "Well then I suggest we get back to work, there is much left to do today."

He headed back over to where the cauldron was lightly simmering. Without looking back at her something came to his mind and he asked before he had time to talk himself out of it, knowing how incredibly foolish it probably sounded.

"Would you like to have dinner in my room tomorrow evening?"

"I'd love too."

With that she walked over to stand beside him and gave him a shy smile before starting to delicately detach spider legs to add to the potion.

**A/N: So I'm so sorry this took an extra day. I was working on it last night trying really hard to get it finished for you guys and found myself rushing through It since I was so tired which was not what I wanted to do. So, I decided another day for a much better quality written story would make you guys much happier. Let me add it wasn't for nothing that you had to wait, I made a 104, 100, and 91 on 3 out of 4 of my tests. Also to BearyFunny66, yes Ginny is a 7****th**** year. She decided to continue her education after the war in this story. Please keep reviewing and throwing ideas out. I appreciate them all so much!**


	8. Chapter 8

It was a bright, clear morning when Hermione woke up after some very pleasant dreams the next day. After getting out of bed and throwing some comfortable clothes on she left her room to go find Ginny. They were supposed to have breakfast together this morning since it was Sunday and if she had to bet she would almost guarantee Ginny was still in her dorm sleeping.

She walked the familiar route to the Gryffindor common room and stopped as she came to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Memories rushed back to her from when she was a student here and normally sneaking in and out of this very room to get into whatever trouble lay ahead of them.

She smiled a little at the thought of her, Ron, and Harry trying to huddle under the cloak these days. It would be a comical sight to say the least.

"Password?" The Fat Lady trilled in her pompous voice.

"_Audentia._"

The Fat Lady smiled down at her as she swung open. Hermione clambered through the entrance and scanned the room looking for a sign of Ginny. She sighed when she didn't find one. She definitely took after Ron when it came to sleeping.

Hermione walked over to the stairs that led to the Girl's Dormitory and climbed up until she got to the room Ginny was in. She knocked before entering, out of respect for privacy, and when she received no response she used _Alohomora_ to open the door.

The sight that met her eyes made her have to slap her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Ginny was sleeping hanging off the end of her bed with Arnold bouncing around her. Shaking her head at the sight Hermione walked over poking the girl.

"Get up, Ginny! We are supposed to have breakfast and it's a nice day today, we can eat on the grounds."

All she got was a derisive snort from the direction of the floor. She sighed impatiently before muttering a quick hex that would sting the girl awake.

Ginny jumped, shrieking as the hex hit her and quickly sent a glare at the bushy haired girl in her room.

"I'm up ok?" Her hand was rubbing at the spot the hex was aimed.

Hermione laughed and threw some clothes that were laying on the bed at her. "Come on and get dressed before they clear the tables and we have to go all the way to the kitchen."

It didn't take long for Ginny to get dressed and they quickly made their way to the Great Hall to snag some food before the house elves cleared the table. They decided since it was so clear outside they would eat somewhere on the grounds like Hermione had suggested.

Ginny grabbed a couple of biscuits and some bacon, while Hermione just grabbed a small cup of fruit. Working so much with Severus caused her to miss meals quite often, so she had gotten used to eaten a lesser amount of food than she used to eat, therefore she didn't want anything too heavy to eat for breakfast.

They finally made it outside and after walking around for a little bit decided to eat beside a tree that had some large rocks to sit comfortably on and had a good bit of sunlight shining down on it to keep them warm. Hermione sat down on a rock, leaning her back onto the trunk of the tree biting into a strawberry.

It was nice to be able to relax outside with Ginny. She hadn't had much time to do anything of the sort lately and she was glad the Wolfsbane potion had to simmer for two days before any more work could be done on it, allowing her a free day. Her thoughts had started to drift to Severus when Ginny interrupted them with thoughts of her own on the infamous potion's master.

"Is he as reserved around you as he is everyone else?"

Hermione thought quietly to herself for a second before replying. "Not as much, but he is still the same Severus everyone else knows. I think he just isn't used to showing his feelings and it's going to take some time before he readjusts to opening up. He is more caring, even if he tries not to make it obvious."

"So have things gone any farther? You never did get a chance to tell me what happened after I was thrown out…again." Ginny pinched off a piece of biscuit popping it in her mouth waiting on Hermione's reply.

"Well we had a thorough snogging if you must know."

Ginny gasped, "Did it lead to anything else?"

Hermione's mouth fell open in shock at her friend's question. Really it was only natural to be curious but still, she didn't pry so openly about her and Harry. She dismissed the thought knowing she would be just as curious if Ginny was in the same position as her.

"No, although if he wasn't such a gentleman and the fact he actually cares about my honor it probably would have." She didn't even want to look up to see Ginny's expression on that one. She fumbled with a piece of banana before popping it in her mouth giving her something to do.

"You threw yourself at Severus Snape?"

Hermione's face turned even redder than she thought was even possible. The thought of throwing herself brazenly at Severus and how he would actually react to _that_, the thought made her body get warm.

She interrupted her own thoughts before they led anywhere else. "I didn't throw myself at him, it just got a little heated and he said if we went any further he wouldn't be able to stop. I asked him if he cared about me and when he said he did I said I didn't mind then."

"He said he cares about you? And you said you didn't mind if you slept together? What in the world is going on here? Snape has feelings and you aren't being all innocent anymore?" Ginny looked about ready to check to see if Hermione was being imperiused.

Hermione started laughing at her reaction, causing Ginny to jump, it really was funny if one thought about it. Who would have ever thought Severus would have feelings for anyone and who would have thought she, Hermione Granger, would be thinking about having sex before marriage? She guessed they just brought out unexpected things in each other and without hesitation she decided that was a good thing.

"We didn't do anything. Like I said he is too great of a man to do that, he wants to wait until we are more established. He did ask me to eat dinner with him this evening though when we were working on a potion yesterday."

"He asked you on a date?"

This time Hermione dropped the piece of fruit she was about to put in her mouth. She hadn't even thought of it as a real date since they were just meeting in his office where they often shared lunch together but Ginny was right. It was a date.

"I guess you would call it a date, we are just eating dinner in his office."

"That is most definitely a date Hermione." Ginny finished off her bacon before continuing. "What are you going to wear?"

Of course, leave it to Ginny to bring up something else she hadn't even thought about. What was she going to wear? Surely he wouldn't expect her to dress up since they were staying on school grounds, but she didn't want to go in looking like his student either. Sometimes she despised being a girl.

At that moment some girls from Ginny's year waved at her from a distance. Ginny glanced at Hermione before standing up.

"We can figure that out later, I have to go I promised them I'd study with them for an upcoming test. When are you supposed to meet him?"

"At six."

"Wow, it really is a date, well if you need me let me know and I'll help you out, I know I would need help figuring out how to dress for Snape. See you!"

The girl left leaving Hermione feeling more nervous about tonight than she had earlier. She was excited about the chance to actually talk over a nice, quiet meal. It meant they wouldn't have to be careful about what they said or did the whole time and could just enjoy each other's presence. Now it felt like she was going to face Hagrid's three-headed dog, Fluffy all over again.

She waved her wand at her fruit, giving up on eating anymore of it and stood up to head back to her rooms. She had a lot to get done before tonight and she couldn't waste any more time worrying about something that she in no reason should be.

She was eating dinner with Severus, they had eaten together countless times in the Great Hall, no reason this should be any different. Except that it was. She huffed to herself before setting off at a brisk pace towards the castle trying to calm her suddenly anxious nerves.

Once she made it back to her rooms she sat down at her desk, pulling out her quill. Harry wrote her three days ago and she had yet to write him back. She didn't need him getting all worried and coming to the school, still being the brash man he was in school, so she decided she had better take some time to finally respond.

_Dear Harry,_

_I assure you Severus is not forcing me to do anything of the likes to testing bad batches of potions on myself. Honestly, you would think after the war you would let up on this whole image you seem to have instilled in your brain about him. _

_As I have repeatedly told you, he is quite pleasant to work with and provides a nice challenge to me instead of making everything easy and being overly nice like most professors would be. He acts in a way that causes me to strive to be even better and I am very thankful for that._

_As to your question concerning what happened between me and Ron, if he hasn't told you I won't embarrass him further by letting you know either. Just know that if it hadn't been for Severus he would probably be much worse off. We are most certainly not getting back together and in fact I am quite happy with that arrangement._

_In fact I have met someone, as Ginny may have told you, but I will not disclose the name as of yet, as I am confident she won't either. He makes me very happy, but we are still figuring things out at the moment so I will let it go at that for now._

_Enough about me how are things with you and Ginny on your end? She has been very happy lately and I am pleased to say I'm fairly certain it's because of you. She'll be graduating this year so I hope things continue to move forward for you two, she really is very good for you and a wonderful person._

_I would write more but since Ginny is the main person I confide in here you probably already know almost everything going on with me. Besides that Severus has me learning Wolfsbane currently so I have assigned myself several books to read on the ingredients that go into the potion._

_Lots of love,_

_Hermione _

_P.S. Don't mention to Ron anything I said referring to me and him, especially Severus. I can't imagine it is a pleasant memory._

Hermione chewed on the tip of her quill rereading the letter before deciding to seal it. She normally confided in Harry, but this was something she was sure he wouldn't understand and she had told him enough that she wasn't actually lying to him. Maybe, in time, she could ease him into the idea.

That was, of course, if her and Severus actually became something more. She certainly hoped so. He was someone she could imagine having long discussions over new potions, books, and theories. It was a warming thought and she smiled as her wand tapped the letter sending it to the owlery.

It really was nice that as a professor or apprentice one didn't actually have to go into the owlery to mail a letter. It really was nasty in there and Hermione always hated the dreadful feeling that she was about to have something rather putrid fall on her head at any given minute.

A look around the room almost made her groan. The books she had to read were piled everywhere. She couldn't remember the last time she actually didn't want to study. Today though, with her mind racing about her date with Severus later, was definitely one of those days.

She grudgingly got up from her desk and laid on her bed, grabbing the book _Bloodroot Against Magical Maladies_. It was a thick book, but was actually very interesting. Despite her previous desire not to study, she soon got caught up in the book and didn't stop reading until she glanced up at the clock.

It was already four o'clock! That meant time to get ready for tonight. It felt as if her heart leapt in her throat and got lodged there. She hadn't given anymore thought to what she was going to wear.

She decided to worry about it later and jumped in the shower. She allowed the hot steam to relax her tense muscles from being propped up on her arms reading for so long. After washing her hair and bathing off she reached for her wand, casting a spell that effectively diminished any unwanted hair completely, leaving her legs silky smooth.

The thought of Severus' hand being on her legs made her chastise herself and end her shower, grabbing a towel hanging nearby and wrapping up in it. There was no way he would allow things to advance to that level after the other night. She could only hope he wouldn't refrain from kissing her also. She cast a charm on her hair drying it immediately.

She made her way to her closet and opened the door looking at the mix of apprentice robes and muggle clothing. She honestly didn't have anything suitable at all to wear for tonight. It went without a doubt that Severus definitely wouldn't be impressed by muggle clothing. All that left was her apprentice robes and that certainly wouldn't work.

A sigh of exasperation escaped her mouth. Maybe she should start putting more effort into her appearance. She was about to resort to taking up Ginny on her offer to help, when something caught her eyes.

There at the back of her closet was a set of dark blue robes that weren't quite dress robes but looked nice nonetheless. She smiled, realizing she had completely forgotten about buying the robes right after the war.

It had been a week or so after Voldemort was defeated and she had been walking down Diagon Alley when they had caught her eye. She normally didn't buy nice robes, preferring practicality for fashion, but after a year of being on the run she decided why not.

She was tired of wearing worn out jeans and tennis shoes. It had been a long year of wearing the same basic clothes over and over again. So what if she never really dressed up before? It was the fact that it hadn't even been an option that made her long to purchase the robes in the window. Without another thought she went inside.

It had been a spur of the moment purchase, almost her way of putting a piece of the past year behind her, and after she bought them they never crossed her mind again. Tonight they would work perfectly though.

Excitement building up inside her, she grabbed them out of the closet and put them on. Walking in front of the mirror she admired how they accentuated her form that she normally kept hidden.

They fell about mid-thigh, keeping it from being too formal with flowing sleeves that were angled to end her elbow on the inside of her arm allowing the outside to cascade to her wrist. The neckline was heart shaped showing off that she was in fact grown, but not distastefully so.

She tied the sash in the back illustrating her small waist line. Retrieving her shoes, that thank Merlin she had decided to also splurge on that day, she sat down to put them on her feet.

They were considerably taller heels than she would normally wear and fastened around her ankle adding a very feminine touch. The shade of blue matched her dress perfectly. The thought crossed her mind that she hoped she didn't fall on her face while walking in them but as she stood up she found they were fairly easy to stand and walk in. Must be some kind of magic. Now to do something with her hair and add a touch of make-up and she would be done.

Walking over to her rarely used vanity she sat down and thought for a while exactly how she wanted her hair to be tonight. She didn't want it messy, but she didn't want it too in place either. After sitting there for several minutes trying to decide on something she finally gave up and went with how she fixed it the other day on her rampage to make him notice her.

He seemed to appreciate the way her hair was that night, and the style went very well with how she was dressed. She grabbed her wand and fixed her hairs making sure her curls were smooth ringlets instead of frizzy as they normally were.

A glance at the clock told her she had taken longer than she realized. It was five thirty and she hadn't even thought about her makeup yet. She sighed and quickly added some touches here are there to her face.

She lightly added a touch of eyeliner and a dab of mascara. After making her sure her eyelashes were just the right length she added a dusting of silver eye shadow, not too much, just enough to highlight her eyes. She hurriedly added a light smudge of clear lipgloss to accentuate her lips before she was finished.

She found herself staring at the reflection in the mirror. That reflection couldn't be her. She was looking at a woman, not a girl. When had her features matured so much? Nervous butterflies filled her stomach. She sincerely hoped she didn't overdress for tonight. Maybe Severus wouldn't think her too silly for putting in so much effort.

She looked at the clock noticing fifteen minutes had passed. Best go on down to his office. In all her years as a student she had learned it was better to be early than cause Severus Snape to wait, even if only a few seconds.

With that she snatched her robe off the chair to cover up her robes. It wouldn't do to have Filch seeing her go into Severus' office looking like this. Then the man really would have something to talk about. She looked at her shoes and hair, quickly giving up on trying to hide them and just hoped it wouldn't be too noticeable.

Slowly, she left her room peering around the corner to make sure nobody was around to see her. She wasn't worried about having dinner in Severus' office. They could easily say they got busy working if someone noticed they were missing from dinner. She just didn't feel like any confrontation of sorts.

The nerves in her stomach were going crazy and she regretted not taking a calming potion before she left her room. She almost turned around to go back and take one before deciding that no, she wanted to enjoy tonight completely as herself. Not with some help of a potion.

When she made it to his door and lifted her hand up to knock she realized it was slightly shaking. She scolded herself. This was dinner with Severus Snape. Someone she had dined with many times, there was no reason to be so nervous. It was just plain silly. She had never acted like this about Ron.

She firmly told her hand to stop shaking in her mind before resolutely knocking on the door. When Severus opened the door she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

**A/N: Ok, so I know I promised the date for this chapter, but I really didn't want to rush through it and I promised you guys and update today so I'm sort of breaking up this chapter into two parts. The next chapter will concern nothing else but the date so there will be a lot going on and I hope you are as excited as I am. I need your opinion quickly though, would you rather the date be from Severus' point of view or Hermione's? I want to pretty much keep it in one perspective but can't decide whose it should be so I'm leaving it up to you. Please review and let me know your opinion! Thanks to everyone who keeps faithfully reading and sticking with the story.**


	9. Chapter 9

Severus Snape couldn't believe he was nervous about eating dinner with Hermione Granger. He wasn't some adolescent fool, this shouldn't affect him this way at all. It did though and that fact unnerved him even more.

He cursed to himself as he snatched at the white sleeves of his dress shirt pulling them out to just peep out of his black jacket. The need to change how he dressed wasn't felt by him. To be fair though, his robes were dressy in their own way, changing how he dressed now would just make him look foolish. It was just dinner.

This thought was repeated in his head over and over as he silently thanked Merlin he had been a spy in the war. At least it wouldn't be apparent how nervous he felt to her. Not that it was eating with her that was making him nervous, it had to be the fact he was taking a huge risk pursuing anything with the girl and they could easily get caught.

That's what he told himself even though as he took another glance in the mirror cursing his nose his mind told him that wasn't it all. A janitor wouldn't scare him and it's not like they could get him to confess anything. He lied to the Dark Lord on a daily basis, no Ministry fool was going to get past his shields.

You bloody fool. Nervous over dinner with a girl, if anyone learned of this he'd lose his reputation for being fearless for sure. Bugger.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a small knock at the door and swiftly stopped his fidgeting, allowing the mask that allowed him to constantly portray himself as emotionless fall into place. He would not allow her to know he was nervous over a simple dinner.

With a quick glance to make sure everything was in place, he left his quarters exiting into his office and jerked the door open.

"Good evening, Miss Granger."

"Good evening."

As he stepped back she walked into his office and allowed the cloak she was wearing to slide off. His breathing stopped. She looked… beautiful. That wasn't even the word. He had never seen her this exquisitely dressed, even at the Yule Ball, and he found he didn't mind at all. In fact he quite liked the change.

He noticed her watching his eyes raking over her and quickly snapped his head up looking at her silently. How could he keep his cool during a bloody war, but loose it the minute a girl in a dress and heels walked in his office?

"Are we eating at our desks?" Hermione was looking around questioningly noticing the lack of a table or any type of chairs besides what was at their desks.

"This isn't work, I planned for us to eat in my quarters. Unless, of course, that is a problem?"

Hermione shook her head no, her eyes widening a little. He laughed to himself figuring the shock that he would allow her in his private quarters was more the reason of her reaction than actually dining in them.

It was well known he never allowed anyone in there, not even Draco. It had been the one place during the war he could go and allow his walls to crumble down and he was adamant not to share it with anyone. It wasn't the war any longer though and something about Hermione made him want to show her the side of him nobody else got even a glimpse of.

"Better than eating next to a bubbling potion, anyway." His eyes darted around before landing back on her figure. "You look nice tonight."

It was all he could bring himself to tell her and he was almost angered that that was all he could manage. She looked far better than nice. Surely, after years of being around him she would understand the significance of even that small of a compliment. It appeared she did.

Her eyes lit up and she flashed him a smile causing his stomach to jolt. She really had grown into an attractive woman. Which he realized is what she was.

No longer was she some young girl running around on adventures with her friends. No, she was a fully grown woman and she acted that way too. It was a fact that he appreciated. Now, if only he could manage to keep his eyes from traveling to her chest during dinner, this could work out great.

Flicking his robes out with his wrist he turned abruptly and opened the door leading to his rooms for her. He watched as she smiled uncertainly and walked past him. Good Merlin, had she put on some sort of perfume? She smelt divine.

Shaking the thought out of his mind he followed her closing the door behind them causing her to jump a little. Good, he wasn't the only one nervous then. It seemed her attention was soon on something else though, because her mouth had slightly opened as she took in the room that he had turned into a sort of private library.

He smirked smugly as she walked swiftly over to run her eyes over the books. It had taken years, but he had managed to build up his collection immensely since he had graduated. It now held many first editions and ancient books that he held the only surviving copy of. He should have known it would catch her interest.

"All these books, how on earth did you find them all? These are priceless!"

She whipped around gently paging though a book on Arithmancy he had acquired in his late twenties. "This is wonderful."

"It took several years and dealing with some people that I'd rather not go on to describe."

"Oh! Well, at least you have them now. I forgot that you enjoyed reading also."

There she went flashing him that wonderful smile again. He dared to let his eyes fall on her lips before going back to her eyes.

"Yes, you aren't the only one with a love of books, although one must realize that books do not answer everything." He folded his arms behind his back and peered at her to gauge her reaction.

"Of course not. They are helpful though aren't they?"

He allowed a smirk at her while he watched her gaze go across the rest of the room. His quarters weren't what one would call inviting but he had managed to make them cozy.

The sitting room they were in now was dimly lit, much like the rest of the dungeons, with a small fire burning adding warmth to the normally cold air. He had lined the stone walls with bookshelves that were completely packed with all the books he had collected.

The furniture was sparse but fairly comfortable. There was an emerald winged-back chair tucked in the corner with a small table beside that he normally read at in the evenings when he finished his work. Beside the chair on against the wall was a matching couch.

Finally, he watched as Hermione's eyes finally took in the scene beside the fireplace. He had set up a table with two chairs facing each other on top of an emerald rug to match the rest of the furniture. On the table were two red roses in a vase.

He normally wasn't one for flowers, but then again he wasn't normally one for dates either. Something earlier that day pulled him to put the flowers on the table thinking he should do something a little special to show her he did truly care like he said he did.

"Severus, it's lovely," she breathed not taking her eyes off the table.

"Not near as much as you."

Where the heck had that come from? He wasn't one to give out cliché phrases and there he was sounding like some love struck hormonal fool. A grimace spread on his face as the pure idiocy of what he said sunk in. He had lost his bloody mind. That was it. All the stress of the war and he had just plain lost it.

He ignored her looking at him strangely and motioned for her to sit down, pulling the chair out for her. No matter how much he thought he was losing his mind, it wouldn't cause him to lose his manners. That much could at least stay intact.

When he sat down he muttered his house elf's name under his breath, knowing he was about to get an ear full from Hermione. Amazingly, she didn't say anything when Bipsby popped loudly in the room with their food. Must be the nerves he thought silently. He would probably get a lecture later when they were working.

In front of them was roast duck with port-garlic sauce, roasted asparagus, whipped potatoes, and a sliced French baguette. Beside the food was a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon red wine. He hadn't thought to ask her what kind of food she liked so he ordered what he enjoyed and assumed was a pretty neutral menu, ok maybe not. He could only hope she liked it all.

She answered his thoughts before he could voice them, smiling at the food in front of them. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, smiling. He quite enjoyed her smile.

"This looks absolutely wonderful! I love duck and is that red wine? Oh, this is imported from Bordeaux, France! Is this from your stores or the school's?"

"The wine is from mine, the food from the school's. I hope you enjoy it, I didn't know quite what to ask for since we hadn't discussed what kind of food you liked."

"Well, quite honestly, I was wondering if you had used Legilimens on me without me noticing. This is perfect."

He smirked at her, feeling his nerves relax a small fraction at the fact she did in fact like what he had chosen for them to eat. He carved them both off a piece of duck and then allowed each of them to respectively serve themselves the rest of the food.

After both their plates were full, he wordlessly made the cork in the wine disappear to avoid the risk of the cork popping off and landing in their food, or worse hitting them in the face.

Hermione leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes and sighing as she sipped the wine he had poured her. "I haven't had wine since Bill and Fleur's wedding before the war. This is divine."

"I'm glad you enjoy it. I didn't know if you favored wine or not, but seeing as I do and it complements the meal I decided to get it."

"I'm glad."

The rest of the dinner went by in companionable conversation and Severus was shocked at how easy it was to actually talk to her. They discussed potions, students, and what sort of books they both enjoyed and which ones they hated; Hermione loathed books about Xylomancy and Severus found Berdette Bashook's books on Alchemy nothing short of a joke.

The rest of the conversation flowed on in the same pattern until Hermione got quiet and absentmindedly started rubbing the rim of her goblet with her finger tip. When she started chewing on her lip Severus grew concerned, thinking just possibly she was having second thoughts about the whole thing.

Hell, he couldn't blame her if she did. He had had some thoughts of his about whether this was right and if it would be worth it in the end. It was hard to deny the fact she made him more comfortable than he had been in years around people. He banished all his second thoughts though when the one thing he feared most came to his mind.

Without her he would go on existing. Not living, just existing, watching other people live their happy lives, while he died old and alone. The thought of being alone for forever as he had his whole life when finding someone to share things with was so close to him gave him a chill. No he would not give up on this, unless of course she voiced that she wanted to. Then he would respect her wishes and grow even bitterer than he already was.

The fork he was holding almost clattered onto his plate when she finally spoke up and he was shocked to hear what came out of her mouth.

"Severus, what if we are found out?"

He eyed her warily, looking for some sign without probing her mind, that she was using this as an excuse to end things. Seeing nothing but genuine concern in her eyes though, he decided she was just being her normal rule abiding self and slowly answered her.

"We will deal with that if it happens. They will not find anything out from me though I assure you."

Seeing the hurt look in her face he realized what he had meant as reassurance came off as him accusing her of being the reason they would possibly be caught.

Bugger, finally have a nice date with a beautiful woman and he was already screwing it up by insulting her unintentionally. Ah well, he could probably thank years of being hateful towards her and his cold outward appearance for that assumption. He couldn't blame her. He still couldn't grasp why she even cared for him in the first place.

His hand gently rested on top of hers as he looked into her eyes. She tensed up at the unexpected contact and then just as quickly he felt her relax. Hopefully, that was a good sign so he decided to continue with what he was trying to say.

"I did not mean to imply us being discovered would be your fault. I only meant that you do not know the art of Occlumency so they could easily penetrate your mind to find out the truth if it was brought to that."

Her eyes moved down to look at their hands and rested there for a moment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions. I should have known that's what you meant. Of course they'd use me to get the truth. They know they can't penetrate your shields."

She paused and met his eyes again. She had such lovely eyes and the fire caused the normal cinnamon brown to look even more thoughtful and mysterious than he already found them. How was she able to entrance him so easily?

"Do you think, what I mean to say is, would it be possible for you to instruct me in that art? It might be beneficial to get practice just in case they try something before I finish my apprenticing."

She looked up at him apprehensively and started chewing on her lip again drawing his attention to her mouth. The urge to kiss her suddenly became overwhelming and he had to force his eyes to look away from her abusing her lips to answer what she had asked of him. It wouldn't do to give her the idea he was more about a physical relationship than an emotional one, even if he had told her he wouldn't sleep with her right away.

"If you are up to it, I see no problem. Be warned though, it takes a great deal of energy at first to block someone out of your mind so you are more than likely going to be exhausted after practicing."

"I know, I remember when Harry was trying to learn. He would barely make it to his room before passing out."

"You will do much better than Potter. For one you actually see the reason to learn how and two you aren't foolish enough to want to display your emotions anytime a whim overtakes you."

He let a sneer take over his face at the memory of having to instruct Potter on Occlumency. It was a lost cause from the beginning and he was honestly glad Potter had refused to learn it after a few sessions. The fool saved him the trouble of having to argue with Dumbledore to quit wasting his time.

There was a small squeeze of his hand before Hermione returned to eating and they finished the meal both lost in their own thoughts.

Severus couldn't believe his luck. Not only was Hermione smart but she was sensible too. He was glad that she had apparently grown out of thinking that being smart gave her the right to do however she pleased and that it would automatically ensure her success in all of her endeavors. It was a faulty trait that too many people with high intelligence allowed themselves to get caught up in.

Once both their plates were cleaned they vanished and dessert plates with chocolate molten cake appeared in front of them. Severus was about to start eating his cake and had his fork posed over it when Hermione looked at him amazed.

"Severus Snape eats chocolate? Who would have ever guessed you would have a sweet tooth?" she teased him lightly letting him know it was all in fun by flirtatiously resting her chin on the back of her hand and giving him a coy smile.

Her reward was an eye roll. It slipped his memory that he normally skipped out on dessert in the Great Hall so she wouldn't have been aware of his love of chocolate. It was the one indulgence in sweets he allowed himself, normally not taking time to get to dessert much less eat it.

"Is that a problem?" he said dryly stabbing his fork into the cake and sweeping up some of the melted chocolate before putting it in his mouth.

"No, but the fact you have chocolate on your face now is." She rose from her chair as she was talking and made her way around the table. He looked up at her questioningly but didn't make to move even when she was standing above him with her legs pressed against his.

"I assure you, I am not Weasley and can manage to eat without smearing food on my face. There is no chocolate on me."

She smiled at him before taking her finger and running it down both of his lips then licking the remaining chocolate off her finger. When had she dipped her finger in his cake? Oh good Merlin she was about to kiss him. With that all thought was gone from Severus' mind.

All he could focus on was the feel of her lips on his and how sweet she tasted. Good Merlin, she tasted like chocolate. She deepened the kiss raking her tongue over his lips and reaching to put her hands into his hair. He heard himself groan and moved his hands to rest them on her hips.

As he explored her mouth the thought that he would never get bored kissing her ran through his mind.

Just as he finished that one coherent thought, Hermione pulled away and grinning looked down at him.

"All better." She was almost laughing she was so amused by what she had caused. He couldn't believe it. He would have never guessed in a million years that Hermione Granger would ever have the nerve to be teasing him. Yet, there she was moving to sit down again, grinning over her shoulder like she had just accomplished the impossible.

And in a way she had. She had left Severus wanting more and caused the controlled walls to break for that moment. Before he knew what he was doing he grabbed her hand and let out a low growl. "Get back here, woman."

With that he pulled her onto his lap, enjoying the squeal she emitted from the shock of him pulling her back that quickly turned into a moan as he kissed her moving from her mouth, to her neck, to her ear. He smoothly ran one hand up to cup her face.

"You didn't think you'd get away that easily did you?" he whispered huskily.

The feeling of her shivering from what he asked her and leaning her head back moaning made him forget all thoughts of food. Hermione moved to straddle his lap and he let out a low hiss as she brushed up against him.

"Are you sure you want to protect my honor?"

He knew his eyes were dark with want and he thanked Merlin a thousand times over his robes were so thick. Maybe she wouldn't feel his desire at least, even if she could see it on his face.

"I'm quite sure about protecting your honor, that didn't mean I wouldn't wish to change my mind at times."

She bent her head letting her teeth graze against his neck and it took all he could do not to allow a sound to escape his lips. He grasped her waist closing his eyes, feeling her warm breath on his skin. She was going to drive him absolutely insane.

"Are you sure you can't change your mind?"

Part of him screamed to give in, he was grown it wasn't like they were foolish teenagers, but he wouldn't allow it. This was their first date and no matter how damn much he wanted to just rip the dress she had on off he would not allow it. As he reached to pull her to face him, he decided he must have gotten used to torture when spying on Voldemort and now had to inflict it on himself.

"I don't want you thinking that is all I'm after. We barely know each other beyond a professional relationship still." His thumb brushed across her face and she looked at him with a small smile forming.

"So why out of all people do you want to have a relationship with me? No offense Severus but you do come off as someone that would welcome a quick shag and run from a relationship."

He grimaced knowing what she said was right. That was how he normally was. Something quick to relieve the stress, but nothing long to add to it. He was so glad she had changed all of that.

He looked at her seriously suddenly and kissed her gently. "You have an intelligence to rival my own. You genuinely care about the people you are around. You don't do anything merely for personal gain. Most importantly, you took the time to notice me for me when everyone else saw me how they wanted to or used me to benefit whatever cause they supported."

He finished and noticed she looked shocked and her eyes were clouding up. Worry spread across his face, thinking maybe he upset her and said too much but was comforted when she gave a shaky laugh.

"I'm sorry I don't normally get sentimental. I just never expected you to be so open. I would never use you and quite frankly a part of me will always hold the fact Dumbledore did over his good name. You are wonderful in more ways than I can even say. Just getting to know you is more than I ever hoped for. You are brave, strong, powerful, intelligent, and now I know, underneath the façade you portray to everyone, a truly caring man who puts everyone else's needs before his own."

"Do you truly want to know me, Hermione?"

"Yes, everything."

"I hope one day you will."

This time they met each other and kissed slowly. Hermione laid her head on his shoulder and at the moment he felt like the happiest man in the world. Something he couldn't say he had ever felt his whole life. This was something he could look forward to having the rest of his life.

He hugged her close breathing in the scent from her shampoo and closed his eyes enjoying the moment. They sat like that for how long neither of them knew. It could have been mere seconds or several minutes.

All Severus knew was he could have held her the whole night but decided if they were to build this relationship to last it would require building up their friendship also. Something that as a professor and a student they had never had.

"Would you like to read some of my books that you were looking at?"

Her head snatched up with a look of excitement apparent on her face. He chuckled knowing that would grab her attention.

"You would let me read those? They are all priceless, are you sure?"

He let his hand toy with one of the curls framing her face.

"I didn't buy them to look at, love, I bought them to read. It will be nice to have someone to discuss them with."

A huge smile spread across her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck giving him a huge hug. Maybe he wouldn't suffocate before she let go.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me! I know how protective you are of your things." She gave him a quick kiss, still looking absolutely giddy at the thought of reading all the books he had.

"You have to read them in here though. Some are extremely rare and old. I don't want to chance them leaving this room and something happening."

"That is fine! I would love to spend more time with you here anyway. And maybe we can practice Occlumency in here as well?"

"If you would like."

"Of course, oh come on! I wonder what I should read first?" She jumped out of his lap and practically ran over to his bookshelves looking over what all he had again.

He almost let out a real laugh at her excitement. Yes, he could definitely get used to this. He refilled his wine glass and made his way over to the couch intending on letting her have the chair to read in.

She surprised him though by coming over after she selected three books off the shelf and laying her head down in his lap.

"You really are perfect, Severus."

He didn't get a chance to reply because she had already opened the first book and was devouring the page. He chuckled and took a sip of his wine, playing with her curls again and watching her face as she read. Oh yes, Hermione Granger was going to be someone he would thank Merlin every night for sending into his life.

**A/N: Ok, so took longer to type than intended but I got blocked on how to play out the meal and didn't want to force anything out so I took my time instead. I hope you enjoy this chapter seeing as it entirely focused on their date. Sorry to those who wanted it in Hermione's view but most people wanted it in Severus' and I actually felt like since it was in his quarters it would be better portrayed from him. Review, review, review! I will update quickly.**


	10. Chapter 10

It was Tuesday, two days since their date, and Hermione found herself nervously standing in Severus' private quarters again. They had arranged tonight to start on her Occlumancy lessons.

Hermione had to admit, even if she completely trusted the man, the thought of being at the end of his wand was a little nerve-racking. She knew how powerful he was and also that there would be no way to stop him from seeing her memories. With practice she eventually would, but not from the beginning.

That is what made her nervous. He would be able to see how she truly felt about him. Would it scare him off to know she cared so much already? He should know she would have to care a great deal to put them in such a risk though.

Oh well, he should prepare himself for whatever was to come to him, no matter what. She turned around, her jaw braced, determined to get her nerves under control. Oh, well that was great, he was already standing there smirking at her. This was going to go bloody fantastic. Why did she have to learn every subject that came under her nose?

He was right, she was an insufferable know-it-all and she feared she was about to pay dearly for it.

"Are you ready Hermione?"

Her heart skipped a beat at him using her name. She didn't think she would ever get used to the sound of it rolling off his lips. Great, his first glimpse in her mind and he'd see how lovesick she was over the sound of him saying her name. She squared her shoulders trying to calm herself.

"Of course, Severus."

"Remember to clear your mind of all emotion, all thought. Focus on nothing except a room where all your memories are locked. Don't expect me to go easy on you. Nothing will raise your skill but repeated attacks. This is why it is not taught in classrooms."

Hermione was about to nod her head yes when before she could react he pointed his wand at her yelling "Legilimens!" Well great, there went any chance of hiding her thoughts.

Suddenly, she felt an intense pressure around her skull. She stumbled as memories came easily flashing to her mind, showing him everything that she was seeing.

_Her and Kingsley riding into the black night air on the back of a thestral. The shock of reaching the top of the clouds only to meet what seemed like hundreds of death eaters. The curses shot were numerous and the fear that this would be how she would die. As Harry Potter, boy-who-lived, on the back of a thestral, doing the thing she hated most; flying._

Quickly another memory popped up as quickly as that one was over.

_Ron had just left. She couldn't believe it. She knew things were the hardest on him right now, but for him to just desert them. How? Why? All she could feel was pain and betrayal. She knew the necklace caused him to be even more jealous over Harry. She never thought it would cause him to leave. Her legs finally gave way from this added on top of the already overloading stress. Feeling herself on the ground, she let herself dissolve into tears._

A flash, another memory.

_A patronus that just showed up in the middle of the woods made no sense to Hermione. Harry said it was his mum's but she knew that wasn't possible. Her body screamed something was wrong. It didn't matter though, Ron was back and he had destroyed the horcrux in the necklace. Whether or not the patronus was an enemy or ally, it had showed them where the sword of Gryffindor was hidden. She would just accept it._

The memories came quicker now, not allowing a break in between and she winced feeling him pushing harder trying to get her to react and push him out, but she couldn't. Shockingly, she found part of her didn't want him out.

_Snatchers had caught them. They were drug back to Malfoy Manor and she was currently pinned under Bellatrix LeStrange. Terror ran through her veins but she would not reveal the truth of anything to the evil woman. Pain burned through her and her scream escaped her mouth without permission. As she screamed she realized vaguely that the pain came from the woman carving into her arm._

_They were in the Chamber of Secrets and Ron was telling her to destroy the horcrux. She wasn't sure she could. If it hadn't been for the fact they were pressed for time she probably would have argued until Ron gave in and did himself. There was no time though so she stabbed it with the fang. Water exploded and for a second she thought they were going to die. Then it was over and the next thing she knew she was wrapped in Ron's arms kissing him._

_Running. That was all she could do. Everyone else was celebrating but she had to save him. He was on their side, he couldn't be dead. She must save him. Nobody else would care enough to try. She threw herself down beside him and started crushing dittany and shoving a bezoar down his throat at the same time. It was then Fawkes showed up and started crying. Phoenix tears! It would work. Still she held her breath after she had done all she could do. When he started breathing again she started crying with relief, casting a flare into the sky to alert the others that someone alive was here. She had done it, he was alive. _

Severus snatched out of her mind after that memory was over. It left her head pounding and she didn't know if it was from how quick he withdrew his mind from hers or if that was just a normal side effect.

When she finally got control over her head she looked up, breathing heavily, to see Severus looking at her like she had sprouted another head. She laughed to herself thinking in a way she had, his head had been in hers. Oh gosh, that was a horrible pun. Were dreadful jokes another side effect?

"_You_ saved my life?" He was beginning to look angry. This wasn't good at all.

"Of course, is there something wrong with that?" Her breathing was finally slowing down and she straightened her back looking straight at him.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't see the need to. You would have accused me of bragging and I know you and your pride. It would have eaten away at you to know a student, especially a Gryffindor from the so called "Golden Trio" had saved you."

"You are right."

Hermione swallowed. Fear was beginning to spread through her. Absolutely wonderful, she had managed to break through some of his walls and now because of her need to learn Occlumency he was going to throw them all up again.

"It would have eaten away at me then. Not now." His eyes shifted around awkwardly before connecting with hers. "Thank you."

Hermione's breath caught in her throat. He was thanking her? What was going on? Severus Snape never thanked anyone. Her mind was racing; she didn't know how to process him thanking her so she did what she was best at.

She ran at him, engulfing him in a hug. She heard him let out a breath as her body collided with his and then slowly his arms wrapped around her. A smile spread on her face as she looked up at him.

"Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without its snarky Potion's professor."

He gazed down at her over his nose with a scathing look on his face. "Is that the only reason you are glad I'm alive?"

A laugh escaped her lips as she kissed his cheek. "Of course not, then I wouldn't have ancient books to read, I would never become a great potion's mistress, and these Occlumency lessons would never happen."

"Well I'm glad to be of service."

"Also, if you weren't alive I wouldn't be able to kiss the most amazing man I've ever met."

As she reached up to kiss him she couldn't help but realize she truly meant what she had said. He was more amazing then anyone she had even be acquainted to and oh! He was such an amazing kisser. She felt herself protesting as he pulled away.

"Ready to try again?" A smirk grew across his face as he noticed her expression, clearly stating she was ready to try something else again. Instead of actually voicing that though Hermione decided to show she was ready by walking back to the other side of the room.

Hermione resituated her stance before they started. She tried to clear her head of all thoughts like he said and succeeded. She was just starting to envision a barricaded room when he cast the spell at her.

"Legilimens!"

Damn, she had been so close too. She grimaced as she felt the pressure in her head again. This really had to get better, didn't it? Didn't Severus know how to look into people's thoughts without them noticing? She couldn't figure out why it was so painful on her.

She gasped as more memories came forth again, almost as quickly as the first time.

_It was after the war and her and Ron were arguing again. "Just leave me alone Ronald!"_

_He started walking after her. "Why, where you can go practice more bloody spells? The war is over Hermione let it go!"_

The scene changed to them in Mrs. Weasley's garden.

_She violently pushed Ron off of her and stood up brushing the dirt of her pants. "I am not sleeping with you in the dirt!"_

"_When are you going to stop being such a prude?"_

"_When I actually feel like it would mean something! Not just some quick shag in the dirt like a bunch of animals!"_

The memories came fast again and briefly she wondered if he controlled that or if she did.

_Her and Harry were sitting at the kitchen table at Grimmauld Place. "Ron doesn't make me happy, Harry. I almost loathe being around him anymore."_

They were now at the Burrow after she had caught Ron.

_She was packing what little things she had brought over when Mrs. Weasley walked in. "Dear, I am so sorry, maybe you two could sort things out."_

"_No, Mrs. Weasley, not this time. I know he's your son and I love him as a friend, but I'm almost happy it worked out this way. It means Harry isn't put in the middle. He's been through enough without having to choose between his two best friends."_

There was a slight relief of the pressure in her mind as she felt Severus slowly leaving her mind this time. Thankfully, it didn't leave her with the mind-numbing pain it had before. It must _have_ been because he left so fast.

"You've improved."

"What?" Hermione was confused. She had in no way forced him out of her mind. She had allowed him to sift through her memories as easily as the last time.

"I couldn't grasp hold of your thoughts on the situation. You pushed me into watching from a third-person perspective instead of seeing it through your own eyes.

A gasp escaped her lips as she realized he was right. None of what she viewed delved into her own thoughts. It was as if they were watching it through a pensieve. Excitement ran through her.

She could do this! It would take work and Severus viewing many more of her memories but she would accomplish it. Then they could relax. If she could guard her mind against the ministry they wouldn't have to worry about getting caught.

A thought she had earlier suddenly came to mind.

"Why can I feel pressure in my mind when you are using Legilimency? I thought you could read people's thoughts without them being aware of you being there?"

He took a moment to reply, sheathing is wand back in his sleeve. When he looked up he looked like he was being careful how he worded what he said.

"I can, however, I feel it would be beneficial for you to get used to warding against something you can physically feel first before you learn to build a ward even when you seemingly don't have to."

That made sense. Of course she would need to learn how to defend against the obvious first. If she didn't have something to work against she would never build up and strengthen her walls. He really was a great teacher and she found herself being extremely thankful he was the one teaching her; even if he did see all her memories in the process.

"This is the same reason I have been using my wand and casting the spell verbally. While I normally cast it silently and wandlessly, you need something you can picture building a defense against first. After you accomplish that, we will work on advancing to me casting it nonverbally and then, later, wandlessly."

"And I was proud of just blocking you out of my actual perspective." Hermione's mind was racing. They didn't have very long to get her where she needed to be and it looked like she had much more work to do than she had originally expected.

"That is something to be proud of. Potter couldn't do that at all. To be able to achieve that on your second try is more than most can ever hope to do."

"How long did it take you to learn Occlumency?"

"A month, to become as skilled as I am now, a year of rigorous training and knowing I had no other option but to master it."

"A month? You learned to block your mind in a month? That's incredible." Her head was reeling. How in the name of Merlin was she going to learn this in a month? They certainly couldn't practice every day. She had potions to learn, not to mention Filch was already suspicious. Sneaking around to meet up with Severus every day wasn't going to help matters.

"You will learn it soon enough. Until then we will just have to make sure to give them no cause to search your mind. It's illegal without permission."

"But, you searched people's-"

"It was a war, Hermione. I had to know who was thinking what. I assure you there were worse things that had to be done," he quickly cut her off.

She shifted uncomfortably, wondering just what _did_ he have to do during the war. Obviously, it had to have been bad, to keep Voldemort from questioning whose side he was on. It was a mark towards how strong he was that he didn't lose his sanity after the war.

"Well, I guess we should try again?" She broke the silence realizing they were just standing there and she didn't want him assuming the worst in her silence.

"No, we are done for the day."

"What? You said you wouldn't go easy on me!"

"I'm not; I'm rewarding you for what you've already accomplished. We still have to work on the Wolfsbane potion and I don't need you passing out in it."

With that, Severus turned around and left her standing in his rooms terribly confused. Part of her was happy to get a compliment from him, however small, but the other part felt there was more to why he was stopping. Maybe he didn't want to see some of her memories?

Maybe he was backing off because of something else in her memories. She shrugged and sighed deciding she might as well follow him and finish up the potion they had been working on.

"You need to carefully split the wing of the lacewing in half in perfect proportions for the next part of the potion then add them while giving it three clockwise stirs and two and three-quarters counter-clockwise stirs."

Grabbing her small blade she set to doing as he instructed being extremely careful and vanishing all thought from their Occlumency lesson from her mind. Drat, this is hard, how does he manage to make this look so easy?

Just when she was about to give up she felt his hand reach over her taking her knife out of her hand.

"Follow the media line in the center of the wing and it allows the blade to go through straight without tears." He talked while demonstrating and Hermione watched amazed as the blade went cleanly, evenly through it not causing any tears in the delicate wings.

When he handed her the knife back she tried what he showed her and found it worked amazingly. Soon she had all the wings cut and stirred the potion like he said.

After she was finished she turned around and noticed him leaning back on his desk, staring at the floor. She approached him slowly before wrapping her hand around his forearm.

"Severus, what is it?"

"You were tortured by Bellatrix."

"Yes, I figured you knew."

"I knew. She couldn't keep her bloody mouth shut about anything that might please her dark lord. I just didn't expect to ever have to see it." His eyes remained on the floor looking like if the witch wasn't already dead, he would have gladly caused her to be.

"It's in the past. In all honesty it probably wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Any other memories you need to question?"

His head jerked up. She laughed noticing he probably realized he was asking her quite a bit about what he saw.

"It is fine. You will see things that you will be curious about, that's to be expected. I would rather you ask me what's on your mind than keep it bottled up and make wrong assumptions."

He eyed her warily before opening his mouth to speak again.

"Do you mind if I ask you one other question? Then I'll go back to my normal brooding self."

She couldn't help but laugh at that knowing it was probably eating away at him that he was allowing himself to be this curious about what he saw.

"Go ahead, I quite enjoy this new side of you."

He grimaced before continuing.

"Why did you refuse to do anything with Weasley claiming it would be nothing more than a quick shag, but you are so eager to jump into bed with me when you yourself said I came off as more the one time shag type?"

His eyes were looking straight at her and she fought to keep a blush down. Of course he would ask about that. It really didn't make sense that she would sleep with him so quickly after being friends with Ron for years and denying him. She just felt different with Severus.

"It's hard to explain. With Ron it was almost like that was his only goal, where he could go brag he finally had shagged a girl. I didn't want that. With you though, you are, obviously, much more mature and even if it didn't work out I would know you wouldn't be risking everything and sleeping with me just to go brag about it."

Pausing she took a deep breath. "Besides, I really care for you. It doesn't make sense but I do. I'm not one to just fall over any man who looks my way. With you though I feel as if I have found an equal, yet also someone I know can show me new things and push me to better myself at things I normally would assume I'm the best at simply because I am when compared to my friends."

Her heart was racing and for the life of her she couldn't get it to stop. It's not like it mattered that she opened up, eventually he would come across stuff about how she saw him now and she wasn't sure she would be able to block out her emotions every time. Honestly, as good as he was at Legilimens he was probably going easy on her.

She felt his hand on her face and realized he was bending down to kiss her. The desire to deepen it burned in her so bad. He was already pulling away though before she even had the chance. When she looked at him questioningly he looked at her with a small smile.

"You need to go to bed and rest. I will see you in the morning."

A protest almost fell from her lips when it hit her that she was exhausted. In fact, she couldn't figure out how she had even brewed the potion at all, even if it wasn't that much work. She gave him a weak smile and kissed him gently before stepping away.

"I'll see you at breakfast?"

"Of course, be ready to help me fill orders in the morning. St. Mungos still can't figure out how to brew their own burn salve, the twats."

She let out a laugh before walking out and closing the door behind her. She knew he would be making her make all the burn salves. He hated doing it and if made to would voice the entire time at the ridiculously dim staff that sorry excuse for a hospital had and how they should all be fired at once.

Trudging along the corridor she didn't realize Filch was anywhere around until she heard his voice.

"Well, well, well if it isn't Hermione Granger, brains of the Golden Trio. Not to smart when it comes to sneaking around with a man though are you?"

Her head snapped to the direction his voice came from and she instantly tried to act alarmed, which wasn't too hard to do since she he had snuck up on her.

"What are you going on about?"

"You and Severus Snape. Leaving his office this late at night, good thing a student didn't see you. My, my how rumors would fly." He flashed her his awful teeth and suddenly Hermione felt rage build up in her.

"How dare you insinuate anything is going on between Severus and me? He is teaching me an extremely difficult potion right now that required my attention tonight!"

"Did a potion require you to wear heels to check on it the other night?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." How could he have seen her? She checked the halls thoroughly before leaving her room.

He chuckled and started walking away. "Good evening, Miss Granger. I'll be seeing you later."

She stood against the wall for a second trying to grasp hold of her thoughts. He had seen her going to Severus the other night but how? If asked by McGonagall she would just lie.

It would be easy enough to claim she had went to let him know that she couldn't help him with orders that night and left to meet with Harry or someone. She was allowed to leave the castle at least twice a week as she pleased.

She almost sent a curse at a portrait that was making rude gestures pertaining to what Filch had said but decided against it instead walking briskly to her room.

Even in all her anger, the minute she laid down she quickly fell asleep and before she knew it the sun was up and it was time to get ready for breakfast.

**A/N: So I was going to make this longer, but I have mid-terms to study for plus I'm exhausted and I was determined to give you guys a new chapter today so there you go. I hope you enjoy it and I will go ahead and let you know I probably won't be updating again this week where I can study and just allow some time to let my brain rest where I can relax and get more ideas to add to this story. Thank you so much for all the reviews I got for the last chapter, it has helped me stay inspired to write this chapter through all the stress. Please continue to review and I will try to update as soon as I can. So sorry for the delay!**


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning in the Great Hall, Severus Snape was slowly eating his breakfast of eggs and toast trying to ignore Flitwick's incessant chatter. Honestly, did the man not know when to shutup. He vaguely wished he was still headmaster where he would be seated farther away from the professor and could enjoy his food in peace.

He suppressed a sigh and sent the best glare he could manage at the wizard, which was still running his foolish mouth, to no avail.

"Fillius, do you have nothing better to do this early in the morning than to run your mouth or do you simply enjoy keeping everyone else from enjoying their meal?"

The small man looked abashed for a second before cheerfully laughing and taking a swig of wine out of his goblet. "Oh Severus, you never were a morning person now were you?"

Severus looked at the wizard as if he had lost his mind completely and was about to utter a snide remark when he heard the chair next to his being pulled out to be sat in. He looked to his right to see an extremely tired looking Hermione Granger slowly dipping baked beans onto her toast.

"Miss Granger."

"Professor Snape." She eyed him coyly and he let out a hiss as he felt her hand running down his thigh to finally come to a rest slightly above his knee.

Damn Gryffindors and their inane courage. She would either cause him to lose his mind or get them both in a very awkward situation. Probably both if he didn't teach her Occlumency quickly.

Yesterday showed him she had potential. Great potential at that, but could she learn to the extent they needed her to be at before it was too late. He learned so quickly because it was life or death. She, on the other hand, while in a very serious situation, was also caught up in the excitement of a new relationship. There was nothing exciting about spying on the Dark Lord.

He took another bite of his eggs before tapping his goblet to fill it with more wine. Wine would definitely be needed since she would not stop rubbing his bloody leg. He cast her a glare worthy of the one he sent to Flitwick earlier.

At that moment, owls flew in the room to deliver the post. Severus never received anything in the mornings since he requested all of his letters to be sent straight to his office. Otherwise, he would have a line of owls taking over the whole table from all the orders he received.

Therefore, he focused his attention over to Hermione's plate where two letters had just been dropped off and found to his utmost curiosity that she had been delivered a howler. He looked at her to see her nervously looking at the smoking letter before reaching over to shakily open it. Good, it would only be worse if she let it blow up on its own.

What erupted from said howler caused the whole Great Hall to go silent and Severus to have to maintain a tighter grip on his goblet to keep from dropping it.

The voice of Ronald Weasley was unmistakable.

"_Severus? Severus! Since when did that greasy git become Severus, Hermione? You are pathetic. Are you actually beginning to care for the greasy git you shagged-"_

Severus pointed his wand as calmly as he could to the letter before causing it to go up in flames, flashing an odd look towards Hermione who seemed to be regaining her composure. As she reached for her other letter, addressed from Mr. Potter, as if nothing had happened he decided he needed to say something since everyone was still staring in their direction.

"Who gave you permission to use my given name, Miss Granger? No matter what daydreams your silly mind is conjuring you are to refrain from ever taking that liberty again and you can tell your friends to keep me out of your childish personal problems."

Hermione blushed and ducked her head all the while reading the letter in front of her. "Yes, professor." She muttered it so quietly he could barely hear her.

He resumed eating, quickly finishing his meal before standing up to leave. The whole bloody school would be speculating them shagging now. This wouldn't help to give them more time to strengthen her Occlumency. Maybe they could smooth it over.

He was about to turn to Hermione when McGonagall's voice caught his attention.

"I need to see you in my office, Severus."

The urge to roll his eyes was almost uncontrollable. This was just bloody great. He would be interrogated and asked about his personal life all in one day. He acknowledged her demand with a small bow before continuing to turn towards Hermione as he had planned to do.

"I trust you are capable to start on the burn salve and other simple orders without my supervision?"

"Yes, professor."

"Very well. Head straight to my lab after you finish your meal."

Severus, on the other hand, headed straight to McGonagall's office and was pleased to note the chatter in the Great Hall was resuming. He was quite perturbed, though, that Minerva would put any faith in what Weasley had to say and was feeling slightly annoyed. Her calling him to her office would cause the other professors to gossip.

He walked up to the stone gargoyle and grimaced as he muttered the password. "Figgy pudding." How utterly ridiculous. Marching up the stairs, he paused when he emerged on the landing taking in the office.

Minerva, like himself, refused to change the office very much from how Dumbledore kept it. He amusedly pondered if anyone would alter how the office looked from when that man had been over the school. A soft voice interrupted his musings.

"Ah, Severus. It's been awhile."

"Indeed," he replied turning to face the portrait of none other than Albus Dumbledore himself.

"And what, my dear boy, brings you here this early in the morning?"

Severus winced at being called a boy. He would never understand the man's determination to still treat him like he was a student at times. True, he was once a student under Albus, but that was many years ago.

Someone walking up the steps distracted his attention away from Albus and to the entrance. Catching a glimpse of Minerva he turned back to Albus and looked at him wryly.

"It seems you are about to find out."

Minerva brushed past him hurriedly, before coming to a halt behind her desk and whipping around to face him. Her face, that normally held softness towards him now was stern with her lips pulled tightly across her face.

"Shagging Hermione Granger, Severus? What abomination is this?"

Severus winced at the accusation thrown his way, partially because it offended him for her to believe what a mere boy had to say and partially because it could actually be true if he had allowed it.

"You and Miss Granger, Severus?" Albus peered at him with a small twinkle in his eye, causing Severus to send a scowl his way.

"Of course not! She is going off of what Ronald Weasley sent to Miss Granger in a howler," he redirected his attention to Minerva.

"I can assure you I do not know what possessed the girl to use my given name but it was not under any pretenses _I_ gave her. As for Weasley, he is just mad because I had to step in when he tried to physically assault Miss Granger in the hallway after his intrusion in the Great Hall the other night. Surely, you know how brash that twit can be, Minerva."

"Under normal circumstance, yes, but I was informed by Argus that he spotted you leaving Miss Granger's rooms several nights ago and then the other night that she was seen going to your office in heels. Since when does Hermione Granger wear heels, Severus?"

"Perhaps you should tell Argus Filch to find something better to do than to spy on what people are wearing."

He could not suppress the growl that emitted from his throat as he responded to what she had said. It was probably not wise to reply the way he did, but he couldn't refrain himself. He knew how careful Hermione had been to sneak to his office that night and some squib wasn't going to throw it all up in their faces.

"What about her leaving your office late last night?"

"For Merlin's sake, Minerva! She had work to do on her Wolfsbane potion that was at a crucial point at that hour. Do you think I enjoy staying up with her when I could be doing other things?"

"I don't know, Severus, do you?"

He leered at her and the two stared each other down, glaring. They hadn't come to odds since the end of the war, when Minerva believed him to truly be following the Dark Lord and he sneered at how easy it was for her to doubt him again.

A small cough caused the two to avert their eyes away from each other although neither moved their heads at all.

"What would be the problem if Severus and Hermione were to be together?"

A gasp escaped from Minerva's lips and Severus snatched his head around so quickly that his hair flew into his face.

"Surely, Albus, you are not insinuating the relationship would be acceptable? She was his student and the age difference alone. It would ruin Hogwarts."

Albus let out a small chuckle. "Our reputation survived the war. I'm sure a relationship between two people, that I might add are no longer serving a professor and student relationship, wouldn't ruin the school."

Severus' mind was reeling. What was that man getting at? Surely he had no way of knowing that they had been testing the waters for a relationship. It was not possible. He wanted to ask him, but if he allowed himself to utter any of the many questions going through his head Minerva would know for a fact they were together.

Were they together? They certainly were getting along rather well, but nothing had been made official. It was probably better it stayed that way. If Hermione was questioned then she could answer truthfully to that question at least. That might be able to buy them some time.

A stutter came from his right and he glance towards Minerva, noticing she was trying to figure out how to reply to the painting just as he was.

"I'm looking out for the welfare of Miss Granger. She has a bright future ahead of her."

A smirk spread across Severus' face at that. Of course that was what she called herself doing. "Ah yes, wouldn't want your precious Gryffindor tainted by an ex-Death Eater Slytherin now would we?"

"Severus, that is not what this is about! You are her professor and as such you will act professional towards her. That means not acting in any way that would cause the girl to crawl into your bed!"

At this Severus lost all control over his temper he had. He would not have anyone accuse him of simply trying to get in her knickers, whether they were together or not. It besmirched what little honor he had left.

He strode furiously to the desk Minerva was standing behind and slammed both hands down on it causing the older woman to jump and look at him nervously. They both knew how capable he was and if he so chose, he could out do her in a duel in an instant. Luckily, for Minerva, he wasn't a dark wizard like everyone tried to make him out to be.

"I will have you know that I am _not_ her professor, nor am I trying to bed her! If I wanted merely a pleasurable moment during the night, I assure you, I would find another woman besides one that could cost me everything I have fought to regain after the bloody war!"

Minerva seemed to get over the initial shock of him slamming his hands on her desk and gathered herself to full height. She looked at the man in front of her curiously.

"Then what do you want from her, Severus?"

"I want to teach her potions. That is all Minerva. Whatever Filch has told you and what Weasley said in a letter changes nothing for me. She is my apprentice, not my student. If a potion requires her to be in my office at a late hour, I don't see how it is any of your concern. The only reason she is apprenticing at Hogwarts is because that is where I spend most of my time. It is convenient. Otherwise, trust me; I would have it somewhere else that childish gossip does not ensue."

Severus could not believe he was standing here arguing about his personal life with Minerva McGonagall. It wouldn't take much more before he told the woman, who he had the utmost respect for up until now, just what her perfect Gryffindor that she was trying to protect wanted.

She needn't worry about _him_ trying to bed the girl; no it was definitely the other way around in that sense. Although, he would have no problem with it if it came to them actually sleeping together. What the bloody hell was he thinking? This argument obviously had more effect on him than he thought.

Now he was having thoughts about how nice it would be to shag Hermione Granger. He would not have her virginity on his hands to deal with at the very beginning. He turned around about to leave, having had enough of the conversation when he heard Minerva speak again. He stopped, leaving his back facing her.

"You never answered as to why she was wearing heels and why you were seen leaving her room."

Severus rolled his eyes, not believing the woman was still on it. What did he have to do to get her off his back? He knew it was foolish to get involved with Hermione, he should have refrained, but it was too late now and this was what he had to deal with.

"I will not answer any more questions, Minerva. Now, if you want a capable Potion's Professor after I am gone, I suggest you allow me to instruct Miss Granger how I see fit."

Before she had time to say anything else Severus strode out of the office. He would not be subjected to anymore questioning on such trivial manners as to who he was or wasn't having a relationship with. It was absurd and frankly he had better things to do.

He strode down the halls towards the dungeons pondering how Hermione was doing on all the orders she had left when he heard a large brass bell reverberate through the castle.

Shit, time for the first class of the day. That left no time to check on Hermione and the potions she was working on, not that he was worried about her. He strode towards his classroom and was perturbed that students were still mingling by their desks instead of sitting down ready for class.

This morning had already started off bad; he didn't feel like dealing with a bunch of insufferable brats.

"Sit down and turn to page 486 in your text books!" As he ordered the students to work he wandlessly slammed the door shut and strode to the front of the classroom.

Pleased to see the students scurrying to do as he ordered he charmed the chalk to start magically writing on the board as he instructed. Looking around, he grimaced. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws today, that meant know-it-alls and idiots.

"You will be brewing a dreamless sleep potion today. This potion is primarily used for witches and wizards who are having trouble sleeping due to nightmares, but can also be used to aid recuperation by speeding the process considerably. I suggest being cautious when adding ingredients or it can have the reverse effect and _cause_ nightmares of which you have never imagined."

He glanced around at the classroom as they all looked at him expectantly. He really hated teaching these two houses. One was full of overly ready-to-please students and the other was full of a bunch of cowards who couldn't brew to save their life.

"Why are you all just sitting there? Get to work!"

He smirked as the class jumped and scurried to start on their potion before he took any house points. It would never end to thrill him that he could scare students without even raising his voice.

As he walked around the classroom monitoring what each student was doing his mind went back to earlier in Minerva's office. Why did she seem so bent on making him admit to something? It didn't make sense; she normally took his word when it came to matters. Especially over Filch.

Also, why did she feel the need to _protect_ Hermione from him? It would be just like Minerva to assume he only wanted sex out of the whole ordeal and not actually develop feelings for Hermione. It was understandable though, after years of being devoted to Lily, one would only assume he would never develop true feelings for anyone else. He most certainly didn't think he would.

His ponderings were interrupted when he heard an explosion and a squeal of pain. He snatched his head over to the far side of the room where a Hufflepuff was holding his hand and the remains of a cauldron lay in front of him.

He quickly waved his wand cleaning up the cauldron remains before rounding on the boy.

"What did you add to your cauldron?"

"A-asphodel," the boy stuttered gripping his hand harder.

"You twat! That is an ingredient for Draught of the Living Dead, _not_ Dreamless Sleep! Twenty points from Hufflepuff, now go to the infirmary!"

Severus snarled. He could not tolerate complete idiots with a lack of following directions properly. How Hufflepuffs were so gifted at Herbology and so lousy at Potions he would never understand. Both subjects were tied closely together and one had to have knowledge of the other to be truly good in the one they were studying.

"As for the rest of you, I want two rolls of parchment on my desk by the next class on why you should not add asphodel to a Dreamless Sleep potion! Clean up your area and you are dismissed!"

Severus strode out of the classroom leaving the students scurrying to pack up their stuff as quickly as possible, determined to check in on Hermione before his next class. When he made it to his office and into his lab the sight that met him made him stop in the doorway.

Hermione was diligently stirring one potion, while adding ingredients to another. His attention was drawn to the area where she had evidently charmed bottles to fill themselves with a potion that was already finished. He was impressed to say the least.

Most of the time he left her with one potion to work on and was only gone for a few minutes before returning to start on the other orders while she delivered hers to the owlrey or infirmary. To say he was shocked she was handling three at one time was an understatement.

"Working a little hard, aren't we?"

She jerked and gasped at his voice, apparently never noticing him enter the room. The scare didn't distract her from what she was doing, however, and she smoothly kept working while responding to him.

"It's not so bad, although I don't see how you manage all these orders all by yourself. I could have been helping much more than you've allowed."

Severus walked over and smoothly took over adding ingredients to the potion she was working on, allowing her to only have to stir the other one beside it.

"You could have, yet we have bigger problems at the moment than me not allowing you to be swamped in work."

Hermione finished stirring and gently laid the stirring rod down on a metal rack to keep the liquid from getting all over the wooden desk. "It has to do with this morning doesn't it? Oh, I can't believe Ron! It seems he read the letter I sent Harry. I didn't even realize I used your first name in that letter until I opened Harry's response, which was warning me about the howler. I got you in trouble didn't I?"

Severus dusted his hands off as he watched her twist her hands together as she rambled on nervously, looking more and more upset. He couldn't help but smirk at her growing anxiety. It was something he probably would have deducted points from Gryffindor before, but now found oddly endearing.

"You didn't get me in trouble, at least not purposely. It seems Filch spotted you coming to my office the other night and noticed your attire. He also saw you leaving last night. Minerva is simply worried about your well-being."

Hermione stopped what she was doing and looked up at him confused.

"My well-being?"

Severus smirked. "She seems to think my only intentions are to get you into my bed. Although, Albus seems to think us being together is a grand idea, oddly enough."

"What? Wait, so McGonagall knows about us?"

"No, I denied it all, but she didn't believe me much I'm afraid."

"And Dumbledore thinks we are a good thing?"

"Yes," Severus responded slowly wondering why that mattered at all.

"Well then at least we have him on our side."

"Too bad he is just a painting."

Hermione's face fell. "Oh right, I forgot, that won't help us at all."

Severus almost laughed at he watched her internally scold herself for making such a stupid mistake. It was always comical to watch her reaction to missing something that was seemingly obvious and he even enjoyed watching it when she was his student. Then, he took pleasure from it for a different reason than now, though.

He glanced over as the potion that was being emptied into bottles was finally finished and flicked his wrist to send them into a box. He looked back to see Hermione looking at him amazed.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Do magic without a wand and without words so proficiently?"

Severus grimaced, remembering why he started teaching himself how to do stuff without a wand or saying anything.

"Anything with enough practice becomes second nature."

"Apparently so for you. Not many wizards can do the amount of magic you can Severus. It's amazing." She looked up at him with an adoring look on her face.

He almost cringed at the look, feeling completely undeserving of it. If only she knew the reason behind it all she wouldn't be so quick to admire him.

"Yes well, if you knew why, it wouldn't be so amazing."

He started bottling up the potion she had been stirring that had now had long enough time to brew to be ready. It was the perfect shade of purple and he was secretly proud of how much she had gotten done while he had been gone. Not many people would be able to multi-task with potions and still have them turn out so perfectly. It was probably the only good thing that had happened today.

"So, do you think they will leave us alone?" Hermione whispered coming up behind him putting a hand on his back.

"I think we had better be more careful if we want this to continue. No more extra meetings this week."

He felt her arms slide around his waist and her head rest against his back where her hand was a second ago and felt himself automatically relax. He heard a sigh come from her and could only assume she was disappointed in not being able to practice her Occlumency.

"I understand, but I will miss spending time outside of learning with you this week."

He smiled at the statement that let him know it was more than any lesson that she would miss. He quickly cast the same charm she had to bottle the potions automatically before turning around.

"I have a class to attend to, would you like to assist or would you rather stay and work on more orders?"

"I'll finish up the orders, it gives me time to think."

"Very well. I will check back in before lunch to see how you are doing."

He felt her hands tugging at his collar and allowed himself to be pulled down towards her face for a lingering kiss. When she pulled away, he allowed his face to stay close to hers for a second.

"It will be fine, Hermione. I promise."

Hermione simply nodded her head and let go of his collar. Severus straightened up and without another word strode out of the room.

**A/N: So here is another chapter finally! I hope you guys like it! Let me know what you think and what you would like to see in your reviews! As always they put a smile on my face and give me more inspiration to update quickly! **


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning, Hermione woke up exhausted. She had continued to work on potions the rest of the day as Severus finished up his classes and got caught up grading papers and creating lesson plans. She groaned as she tried to get out of bed.

Her back and neck were killing her from bending over all the potions and she vaguely wondered how Severus dealt with it all. She wasn't complaining though, yesterday had been nice despite all the worry from what McGonagall had confronted Severus with.

It was the first time they had worked companionably in silence and Hermione found she enjoyed being able to glance over at Severus bent over a stack of papers, scowling and furiously marking in red, without having to hide it. He was very attractive when he was concentrating on work, although she doubted anyone else would agree with her. Severus would probably think she was lying if she dared to tell him.

When her feet touched the floor she shivered at the coldness of the wood and grabbed her wand to relight the fire. The only downside to not allowing house elves to maintain her room was when she fell asleep without remembering to cast a spell that prevented the fire from dying during the night. Otherwise, she was quite happy to say she did not use their free labor.

As she got in the shower, she turned the water on as hot as she could stand it, relishing the feel of her muscles relaxing. She knew there would be another huge stack of orders to fill today so she would enjoy the momentary relief while she could get it. With that thought, she decided to skip breakfast deciding once Severus noticed she wasn't at the table he would make sure food was in the lab waiting for her. Right now she would enjoy her shower.

After she finally got out of the shower and finished getting dressed she hurried to the dungeons to get to work and hopefully find time to talk to Severus about scheduling a time and finding a place to practice her Occlumancy. When she walked through the door to his office she was shocked to see him already standing at his desk with a tray of breakfast sandwiches and tea.

She smiled to herself, he really was more thoughtful than everyone assumed, or even he would admit to.

"Goodmorning, Severus," she beamed at him.

She walked over eagerly picking up a sandwich and taking a bite. She normally ate lighter in the mornings, but after all the work she put in yesterday she realized she was famished.

"How do you like your tea?"

Severus looked at her oddly as if nobody had ever asked him how he cared for his tea and maybe, she wondered, nobody ever had.

"I am quite capable of pouring my own tea."

"How do you like your tea, Severus?"

Hermione earned a growl from him in apparent frustration of her cheerfully looking up at him acting like he never said anything to her at all.

"Three cubes of sugar, no cream."

She reached over pouring tea into a cup before grabbing the tongs to drop three sugar cubes into it as he asked. Grabbing a spoon she stirred the cup before handing it to him.

"There, that wasn't so bad was it?"

A laugh almost escaped her lips at the disdainful scowl he was directing her way but she quickly stifled it down knowing it would only aggravate him and instead swiftly gave him a kiss on the cheek. She was pleasantly surprised when he turned and gave her a kiss back on the lips. She became confused when he immediately turned back to his cup scowling yet again.

"Hermione we need to discuss our arrangements and how we are going to continue this relationship since you refuse to do so."

Hermione quickly lost the cheerful attitude she had been portraying and became quite serious.

"Do you want to give it up?"

Her question caused him to snatch his head up and look at her guardedly before emitting a cautious "No."

"Then don't act like I am the only one who wants this. We both do, so it is on both of us to figure something out."

"Fine. I'm not sure, however, if this castle is the best place to discuss such things at the present though until we come up with a definite solution. It assists who it so chooses and if its magic decides to side with McGonagall there is no telling what kind of access she could have to what we say."

Hermione's brow furrowed at what he was saying. She hadn't even thought about that. Of course him once being headmaster of the school he was sure to know more about its magic than she did, even if she had memorized _Hogwarts a History_.She was only worried about Filch at the moment, but McGonagall was the headmistress and while it didn't mean the castle _would_ help her out, it did mean she had an advantage.

"Where do you suggest we discuss it then? If we are seen in public it is sure to get back to the school or even the Ministry for that matter."

Severus eyed his tea for a while as if contemplating and choosing his next words carefully before taking a deep breath and putting his cup down.

"I was thinking we could go to my house Saturday. I am able to take any work I need to be doing to my private lab and you have two days you can leave without question." He glanced up to see her looking at him strangely. "That is, unless, you find it inappropriate, then of course, we can figure something else out."

Hermione could barely grasp what he was saying. He was inviting her to his house? She couldn't believe it! She opened her mouth to say something then closed it before opening it again.

"No! That's perfect! I should have thought about that. Of course, your house would be the ideal place. I just, I never expected you to invite me to your house," she paused to catch her breath before walking over and grabbing his hands, looking up at him shyly. "Thank you."

"Whatever for?"

"For trusting me enough to feel comfortable with me at your home."

"I never said I was comfortable with it. I'm afraid you'll be rather disappointed with the box I call a house, but it seems our only option at the time."

"I'm sure your house is just fine."

"Then we will meet there Saturday? I will give you the address where you can apparate to the proper location without needing to meet me elsewhere."

"That is fine. Do you mind if I meet you around lunch though? I want to talk to Harry first. About my letter." She bit her lip while looking at the ground trying to decide exactly how to handle the situation with Harry.

Should she tell him about her and Severus or should she just say they had gotten comfortable working together? She hardly thought Harry would buy that the stern potion's professor would ever allow her to call him Severus, but it was worth a shot.

"Of course, but may I ask exactly why you used my first name in your letter to Potter?"

"I didn't even realize I did. I guess I wasn't thinking. So much had happened and I was mainly taking time to reply because it had been so long since he had written me I was worried he would come to the school making sure I was alright."

She glanced up at him when she felt his hand run through her hair and saw him gazing at her concernedly. His hand came back towards her face and paused there with his thumb brushing over her cheek.

He had the softest hands, although how she didn't understand. Maybe he used some type of potion. The thought almost made her snort. Severus Snape worrying about how soft his hands were had to be the funniest image she had had in a long time.

Her attention was drawn back to matters at hand when she felt his lips on her forehead. "You must be careful if we are to make this work, do you understand? I don't want to see your future thrown away over me."

Hermione snatched back looking hurt. "Severus, my future wouldn't be thrown away even if we did get caught. Why can't you understand?"

"Understand what?"

Hermione hesitated before replying. "Nothing, nevermind. We better get to work before someone comes in and catches us like this."

Hermione stepped away and made to walk to his lab. She turned around to find him gazing at her intently, but he seemed like he was going to allow her to drop the subject.

"So my house at lunch Saturday, correct?"

"Of course."

With that Hermione grabbed a sandwich and walked into the lab to work on orders with much on her mind. She still couldn't believe he had invited her to his house and she couldn't wait to see what it was like. She knew he didn't live there much, if at all, so it was probably pretty empty.

Silently she wondered if she might could break down some more of his walls in an environment that was more casual than was at Hogwarts where the constant reminder that she had been his student loomed over them. She grinned wickedly at the thought. Patience was a virtue, but with any luck she wouldn't need it much longer.

During lunch, Hermione took the time to write Harry a letter concerning her visit. She decided not to make it long, simply getting to the point of the matter.

_Dear Harry,_

_I was wondering if you were free Saturday morning. I really wanted to come by and talk to you about my previous letter and Ron's howler I received yesterday. Please respond as quickly as you can where I can make arrangements._

_Love,_

_Hermione_

The rest of Thursday and Friday passed by fairly quickly with Hermione filling orders and Severus instructing her on potions that she wasn't exactly sure of. They added the final ingredients to the Wolfsbane potion of Friday and were allowing it to brew until Sunday. Hermione crossed her fingers it turned out fine.

Next thing she knew, it was ten o'clock in the morning and she found herself standing outside of Grimmauld Place knocking on the door. Harry had replied to her saying he was free Saturday and to come whenever she pleased, she just hoped it wasn't too early. Years of being his friend at Hogwarts taught her that, while better than Ron, he still wasn't a morning person.

Seconds later, the door opened to reveal a disheveled looking Harry still in pajamas. He looked at up her sheepishly, pointlessly trying to get his messy hair to smooth down with his hand.

"Sorry, Hermione, I over slept."

Hermione laughed as she stepped inside the door and gave her best friend a hug.

"It's fine, Harry. I know you are working hard in training to become an Auror, it's understandable. How is that going by the way?"

Harry started leading her down the hall to the kitchen and Hermione looked around the place noticing how much it had changed since Harry had had time to start fixing it up after the war.

It was no longer so dark and gloomy; he had added extra lights throughout giving the house a warm glow instead of the darkness it seemed constantly bathed in before. All the dust and cobwebs had been cleaned away and new furniture was brought in making it much more inviting to guests.

Hermione was honestly shocked Harry decorated it so tastefully, but then again she figured he had enlisted help from Ginny or the person at the furniture store. Otherwise he would probably just decorate it all in red and gold.

"It's going great, although sometimes I think they are out to kill us all since Voldemort didn't get to with all the trials we are made to do. You wouldn't believe some of them. You would think we were fighting an actual war instead of just training."

Harry walked over to the stove and put on a pot of tea before coming to sit down across from Hermione at the table. She smiled that, like her, he still preferred to brew tea the muggle way instead of using magic. Some things were just better that way, although she was sure most witches and wizards would disagree.

"Harry, it is a serious job to become an Auror. Of course, they are training you like there is a war! You never know what could happen or what you could run into. I'd be more upset if they were going easy on you."

Frustration ran through Hermione. Honestly, after all Harry had been through she would have thought he would understand the necessity to constantly train and study. Some things never changed though.

"Hermione, calm down. I know we need to be trained like that, but I can still complain can't I?" he laughed at the glare she shot him. "Now, how is your apprenticeship going with Snape, or should I start calling him Severus now too?"

Hermione nervously fidgeted with her jumper sleeve, chewing on her lip, contemplating what to tell him. She either told him the truth and hoped he didn't go ballistic or tell him a lie and hope he believed her, which was doubtful. He always could tell when she was lying.

"It's going great, I've been brewing the potions for all the orders he has received the past couple of days. He's been really busy and needed to catch up on grading and such. Honestly, I'm excited he trusts me enough to brew them all by myself."

Harry eyed her carefully. "He's not overworking you though is he? It would be just like him to throw all his work on you just to punish you."

A scowl went across Hermione's face that looked eerily close to the one Severus would give his students. "Honestly, Harry, he's not like that. He works very hard and if I can help relieve him of some of that work I am happy to! You should quit being so judgmental of him. It's because of him we won the war, you will do well to remember that!"

"I think you've been spending too much time with him, Hermione. You are beginning to look like him." He reached over to grab her hand when she didn't laugh. "I'm kidding. I know he works hard and I'm sorry. I am confused about why you are getting so mad about anything I say about him though."

"I'm sorry, I just see how much he has to do and how everyone ridicules him and it bothers me. They can spread horrible things about him, but don't mind working him to death to get what they need because they are too dimwitted to do it themselves."

Harry studied her for a moment, when suddenly the tea whistled and he got up to take it off the stove and pour them each a cup. Hermione smiled when he added milk to hers just like she liked it. He really was a good friend, even if he still held a slight grudge against Severus.

A twinge of pain went through her when she realized it was probably more embarrassment at the fact he knew Severus had loved his mother all those years and his silly Gryffindor pride that made him continue to act rude when it came to Severus than actually not appreciating everything he had done. She knew how hard it had been for him to learn that his mother caused someone so much pain over something so small, yet was still unconditionally loved by him. Hermione only hoped he could feel the same way about her someday.

Harry walked over sitting her cup down in front of her. "So, what about this Severus business?"

Hermione groaned thinking he would have just dropped it. She honestly didn't even realize she had never answered him until he brought it back up.

"We work around each other constantly; you tend to get on a first name basis with someone when you spend that much time with them."

"Since when does Snape get comfortable with people?"

"Harry, please, just leave it alone. It was a slip up and it won't happen again." She took a sip of her tea and noticed Harry eyeing her warily but fortunately seemed to accept her response.

Just then they heard someone thundering down the stairs and Harry quickly glanced at Hermione.

"I forgot to tell you, Ron is staying here for a little while."

Hermione almost dropped her tea. After their last encounter and his howler she had no want to run into the prick she used to call a friend again. Severus warning flashed through her mind but surely Ron wouldn't be that stupid in front of Harry.

When Harry noticed her face he hurried on. "I didn't think he would be up while you were here. He normally sleeps until one or two in the afternoon. I'm so sorry."

Regaining her composure Hermione looked at Harry. "It's fine. Maybe he'll leave when he realizes I'm here."

Just then the door to the kitchen swung open to reveal Ron in pajamas, much like Harry's, looking tiredly around the kitchen. When his eyes reached Hermione they widened in shock, before a look of disgust replaced it.

"I didn't know _she'd_ be here."

"Ron, this is my house and Hermione is my friend. She was only stopping by for an hour or so before she had to leave."

It seemed Ron was ready to take anything as bait to throw at Hermione because as he strode to the pantry to find food he mumbled a response that Hermione wasn't sure if he meant for them to hear or not, but they did.

"Of course, she can't spend time with her friends anymore; she has to run off to shag that greasy git."

With that Hermione had had enough. She was tired of the insinuations when he had no reason to have them. Especially in front of Harry, who she noticed had a perturbed look on his face.

"Ronald Weasley, shut up! I am sick of you running your mouth about something you don't understand at all!"

Ron had a doughnut halfway to his mouth when she screamed at him and turned around, throwing it to the floor in anger.

"Don't understand? What don't I understand? First, he hexes me coming to your defense, and then he's all concerned making sure you are not hurt. Later, I read a letter where you are now calling him Severus? What is there to not understand? You are sleeping with that git after only a month or so of working under him when you wouldn't do shit with me!"

Harry stood up awkwardly, trying to end the situation that had blown up in his kitchen. "Ron, that's enough. Why would Hermione sleep with Snape. That's ridiculous."

Hermione's anger had hit an all-time high and even what Harry said to defend her angered her. Why was it so preposterous to everyone that they develop feelings for each other? Oh wait, nobody expected that, it was all sex. Silly her.

She turned to Harry violently. "Why is it so ridiculous? He is a great man, and no Ronald we are _not _sleeping together before you even start!" she whipped back to Ron daring him to say anything else.

"He, above anyone else, deserves to be happy. Why is it so hard for anyone to imagine someone caring for him?"

Ron looked at her like she needed to be put in a straight jacked and thrown in the looney bin. "He's Snape, Hermione. Why would anyone care for him, he would only want one thing anyway."

That made Hermione lose control. She was sick of everyone assuming Severus only wanted an easy shag. He fought the war as a bloody spy for love, why was it so hard to imagine him as being more than the cold-hearted man he portrayed himself to be?

She shot a hex at Ron, who ducked causing it to hit the pantry, blowing the door off and started to storm out of the room when Harry's voice made her stop.

"Do you care for him Hermione?"

She took a deep breath to keep her voice from shaking with anger. "No. I'm sorry about your pantry, Harry." With that she walked down the hall to leave.

Right when she reached the door she heard Ron's voice coming from the kitchen.

"I told you, mate, she's shagging him. Why else would she get that mad?"

Before she could stop herself she turned around and screamed at the door somehow managing not to go back to the kitchen and hexing him to oblivion and back.

"I am not shagging anyone, Ronald, but I assure you I'm quite positive he'd be much better at it than I can imagine you would be!"

With that, she turned around, snatching the door open and looking down at the address Severus wrote for her, apparated on the spot.

It took Hermione several moments of taking deep breathes to come to her senses enough to be aware of her surroundings. She was so mad at Ron, and even Harry, who she knew didn't deserve it in reality. She just wished her and Severus could be public about their relationship, but of course the stupid ministry like always, had to meddle in people's lives.

She stomped her foot in frustration. To her left she heard a dog bark and that was when she became aware that she was standing in the middle of a run-down neighborhood that looked like it might have once been nice at least, but not anymore. She glanced down at the address he had written on the parchment he had handed her making sure she apparated to the correct place.

A glance at the sign above her confirmed that she indeed had. No wonder he lived at the castle for the most part, although she couldn't quite understand why he didn't live in a nicer place, he definitely had money with the expensive suits he wore constantly.

Taking a final look around she walked forward towards the small house with the matching number to the parchment in her hand and knocked on the door.

**A/N: So this chapter was a little shorter than normal, but I think the next chapter will more than make up for it. For those of you who I messaged saying I would have it up yesterday I am so sorry! I got halfway done and hit a block. So, yet another argument with Ron. He never will learn to shutup will he? Let me know what you think and also what do you want to see happening at Severus' house? There are endless possibilities running through my mind, so help me out by giving me your opinion! Thanks as always for the reviews, I love each and every one of them!**


	13. Chapter 13

Hermione almost fell backwards off the steps when Severus promptly snatched the door open in front of her. He was normally quick about things, but she had barely had time to pull her hand back before he appeared before her.

Looking up, Hermione noticed Severus was definitely not in the best of moods and she vaguely wondered if it had to do with her coming to his house. He had invited her though, so he might as well get over that part. He must have noticed her questioning glance because he suddenly looked around, seemingly disgusted before looking down at her.

"It was my parents' house I just never got rid of the blasted thing. Are you coming inside or have you changed your mind since it is not what you had expected?" he sneered.

Well, that made more sense as to why it looked so run down. From what little she knew of his childhood she knew it had not been great by any means. Why had he kept this house though? The memories here couldn't be great so she couldn't fathom why he hadn't sold it and bought something nicer. He certainly had money enough to do so, especially since he stayed at Hogwarts for the most part.

Realization suddenly clicked in. That must be why he hasn't gotten rid of it. Hogwarts had been his home in his childhood much the same as it had been Harry's. He probably barely even came to his actually house. It wasn't as if he had ever been married and needed to have a nice place for a family. Vaguely, she wondered if he had used this house as a sort of meeting place during the war.

"Honestly, Severus, you get too defensive. It is not so bad and I am quite aware you spend most of your time at Hogwarts, so you would see no need in the upkeep of an actual house. Calm down."

Smiling up at him, trying to portray she was being sincere, she stepped in and noticed besides the layer of dust that showed she was right in assuming he rarely came here, it actually looked nice. Standing in his living room she looked around curiously.

To the right was a small fireplace with grimy windows to either side. In front of the fireplace was a faded blue couch facing it and a chair in the corner. It definitely looked cozy and Hermione mused with a little cleaning and sprucing up it would look quite nice.

Looking to her left, she saw the walls lined with bookshelves, much like his living quarters at Hogwarts, except these had dust covering the bindings. In the middle of the room sat an old desk that looked like it was actually a fine quality piece of furniture at one point. Her eyes were quickly drawn back to the books, wondering what kind of collection he kept here.

She was shocked upon scanning over them from where she was standing to notice that the titles she could read were all muggle titles. Of course, his father was a muggle. She had almost forgotten he wasn't a pureblood. It was easy to do with the way he acted, being head of Slytherin and one of the Dark Lord's most trusted Death Eaters during the war. She shuddered, what had made him follow Voldemort if his dad was a muggle? It had to be bad.

Severus must have realized her scrutinizing the books on his shelves because without realizing he had moved she became aware of him standing directly behind her.

"Before my father became a drunk, he did have other hobbies besides beating his wife and child."

A frown spread across Hermione's face. That would explain why he decided to be on Voldemort's side to begin with. His experience with a witch marrying a muggle had been awful, it only made sense he would have it engrained that muggles were filth. It really wasn't his fault.

She wanted to turn around and kiss him, comfort him, anything, but something told her that would be the wrong thing to do. Instead she turned around forcing a smile on her face facing him.

"Looks like we have something in common then, we both got our love of reading from our fathers."

He looked at her guardedly for a moment, apparently contemplating whether to find what she said offensive at being connected to his father or as simply pointing out that they did in fact have similarities. Instead he seemed to decide to ignore her statement altogether turning around abruptly and walking towards the next room.

"I prepared lunch, I figured you would be hungry since you came straight from Potter's and we can't have you wanting food getting in the way of our practice."

Following him, Hermione smiled. Even in a sour mood he was still so thoughtful of her, even if he did try to make out like he only did it to save himself any trouble. She did wish he would quit acting so agitated about her being in his house though. It was getting frustrating. She was hoping they could relax, not spend the whole day with him throwing snide comments around.

Stepping through the entryway into the kitchen she noticed it wasn't as grimy as the rest of the house. He must have attempted to quickly clean it up where they could eat without dust before she came.

It was a decent sized kitchen with a counter going across the back wall a good piece before turning to make an L-shaped bar type area towards the right. On the left wall was the refrigerator then a small length of counter space before hitting the back wall and turning to meet the stove and sink, which, besides a cabinets length, were side by side. The counters were a light grey with white cabinets, giving the kitchen a very utilitarian look.

On the other side of the bar area was where she found Severus standing, apparently waiting for her to sit down first at a small kitchen table. It was placed in front of what appeared to be a sliding glass door that opened into the yard. Yes, with a little cleaning and new furniture this house could be quite comfortable.

Making her way towards Severus, she noticed he had prepared some sandwiches and set out some fruit for them to eat.

"I apologize for the light lunch, but it is best to not eat heavy before practicing Occlumency until you get more adjusted to it."

Hermione nodded and sat down, reaching for a plate and grabbing some food. She felt bad not talking, but for once in her life she couldn't think of anything to say. Fortunately, Severus was, for once, taking care of that part for her. She sincerely hoped he didn't take her silence as a bad thing.

"How did the visit to Potter's go?"

Chewing on a bite of ham sandwich, Hermione paused a moment before replying to him.

"It went decent with Harry at least. I honestly think he's just genuinely confused. He didn't accept my excuse that we had just gotten comfortable working with each other but he agreed to drop it."

"With Harry at least?" he questioned repeating back what she had said. "Who else was there?"

Hermione picked at the apple she had grabbed, determinedly looking everywhere but at Severus. Would he be mad that was Ron was there? It wasn't as if she knew he would be there and she certainly hadn't stuck around.

"Ronald showed up towards the end."

"Showed up?"

"He was staying there and woke up. Harry assumed he would stay asleep the whole time I was there."

"And what happened, may I ask? And stop disfiguring your apple and eat it!"

Hermione promptly dropped the apple on her plate, noticing she had dug her nail into it repeatedly without even noticing it. She wrinkled her nose at it. It was already browning where she exposed the inside to air.

"He accused me of leaving to go shag you so I threw a hex at him and unfortunately missed."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that all?"

She quickly took a bite of her apple trying to keep from making a disgusted face. She always hated apples after they were exposed to air, not only did they look gross but they seemed to get mushy and slimy.

Swallowing the apple she was chewing quickly, she stared at her plate before hurriedly telling him the rest of the events. "I ended up arguing with Harry and then informed Ron that I thought you'd be better at shagging than he would be."

She couldn't conceal the blush that had spread across her face and was shocked that when she dared to look up he was smirking at her. Well he was a man, she was sure that had boosted his ego somehow.

"What did Mr. Weasley have to say about that?" He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair.

"I don't know, I left. You aren't mad?"

"While I don't think it was wise of you to state such a thing under current circumstances I have to admit I wish I had of been there to see his face after that."

"So you're sure you aren't mad?" She couldn't believe it. She was sure he would have lectured her about being more responsible or something even if he was happy about what occurred.

"Do you want me to be?" He eyed her amusedly before grabbing a sandwich for himself.

"No, it's just strange you aren't."

"Then drop it. Are you about done? We need to get to work on Occlumency as soon as possible. I want to work much longer today and we don't need to waste time with idle chit chat."

She nudged his elbow with hers. "Now that is the Severus Snape I am used to."

They quickly finished their light lunch and went into the living room. Hermione was a little nervous. She wasn't sure she would be able to block him out of her emotions right off again but she knew she had to try. It was imperative that she learn how to use it properly.

Walking to stand in front of the old desk she faced Severus with a determined look on her face. "When you're ready."

* * *

"Hermione, you might not be able to immediately be at the same point you were the first time we practiced. I don't want you to allow that fact to frustrate you and cause you to become worse."

"I'm aware."

He sincerely hoped she was, he knew how frustrated she could get when she didn't grasp something as quickly as she would like. Oh well, not much he could do but repeatedly penetrate her mind, unfortunately. He really hated invading her privacy but it was unavoidable.

Raising his wand arm he held her gaze. "Legilimens!"

_A small Hermione toddled across the room to her parents who were talking to each other. Her mother absentmindedly reached and sat her in her lap. Hermione demanded her teddy bear. Her mother continuously ignored her demands. Little Hermione's face screwed up in frustration and suddenly her teddy bear was sitting on the couch beside her._

He pushed on to another memory, partially shocked she showed signs of such strong magic at so young of an age.

_An eight year old Hermione was sitting on a bench at the playground hunched over a book. Two other kids walked up and started teasing her._

_ "Look it's the bookworm. What will you do without your book?" The kid with blonde hair snatched her book away from her._

_ "Give it back!"_

_ "You want it back? Alright then, here." With that he ripped several of the pages and threw it at her feet._

_ Tears poured down her face as she scrambled to pick up what was left of her book and ran towards the school._

Pain shot through Severus at having to watch her be so cruelly bullied for no reason but simply wanting to read instead of running around with the other children. He pushed through one more time, quicker, trying to force her to stop him.

_Students calling her a freak as she walked by._

_ Her parents worrying and taking her to a psychiatrist, thinking her "little problem" as they called it was a mental one._

_ Hermione having fun with her parents joking around outside. She tripped and fell cutting a gash in her knee. Her parents ran over quickly, to see it healing at a rapid speed before it was completely gone in a few seconds._

Severus finally pulled out, realizing he wasn't going to get her to throw him out at this point. Most of what he had seen disturbed him. She hadn't just been teased at Hogwarts then. The thought that she had went through the same bullying he had saddened him. Fortunately, she made friends with Potter which pretty much ended it.

Her parents though. It was just like a muggle to think something magical was a mental problem. They always seemed to think of it like that and he hated that she had had to deal with it with her parents. It was probably scary enough having no idea how you were causing unexplainable things without your parents thinking you were insane.

Fortunately, it seemed besides her magic coming through she had a good relationship with her parents from the memory he had seen of them playing outside. He was glad. At least they didn't beat her for what they couldn't understand. Like his father.

He grimaced at the unhappy memory and brought himself back to the present. Looking up he noticed Hermione was frowning.

"Please don't think badly of my parents for what you saw."

He almost walked over to her. He wanted to so badly, to comfort her knowing he could empathize with her to a point, but he knew they couldn't get distracted from what was at hand.

"Muggles have a hard time comprehending things they have never encountered. It is understandable. May I point out the fact that you managed to keep me from viewing your memories through first-person again?"

Watching her intently, he saw her eyes light up, yet a frown remained on her face.

"I did, didn't I? Well, that's good I guess. I still didn't push you out of my mind though."

"No, you didn't, but I don't expect you to this early. _Legilimens_!"

It probably wasn't fair not to warn her. Not when her mind was obviously on other things. It was imperative though that she understand just how serious it was that she keep her guards up at all times.

This time her memories came flooding to him as if he was her and he grimaced knowing she would be displeased but it was to be expected.

"_Mom look! I got a letter from this school called Hogwarts. Read it." She handed her mother the letter feeling several different emotions; confusion, excitement, relief._

_Her mom quickly read over it before scoffing. "Oh sweetie, this is just a prank, of course you aren't a witch. There are no such things."_

"_But mom, this explains things!"_

"_Hermione, honestly, you are normally so sensible what has gotten into you?" Her mom gave her a strange look before throwing the letter in the trash._

Well, at least her mom hadn't gone completely ballistic. How had Hermione convinced them the letter was legit? Oh well, he pushed on into another memory.

_Hermione was pulling her parents through Diagon Alley to buy her school supplies. It was amazing. She was a witch and at this new school people would accept her! Sure her parents were a little skeptical, but they would understand eventually. When she was able to actually perform magic they would realize she wasn't mentally unsound._

_For some reason her purchase of a wand and performing a small trick with it wasn't enough._

Severus pushed on seeing nothing in this memory that would cause Hermione to really want him out of her head. Come on, Hermione, throw me out. It almost felt like she wanted him in her mind. He had to find something worse. He started sifting through them quickly again.

_Smiling her parents looked at her pitiably. She wasn't allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts and they couldn't accept that she wasn't just making up an excuse because she couldn't actually perform magic. Hurt stabbed through her as she fought the urge not to cry._

Another more recent image of her parents came to her mind.

_She was sitting on the couch showing them some of her books. They finally believed her! It was amazing, they actually were interested now. All it took was exposing them to Ron's parents, and while they thought they were a little strange, they found everything they could do with magic utterly fascinating._

He pushed for one more memory before he would give her a quick break.

_Walking behind her parents without them noticing she raised her wand and obliviated their memories of her. They had finally accepted her and were interested in her new life and now they would never remember her. She felt as if she would pass out but knew she had to leave quickly. She walked out of the door without another look back._

Pulling out of her mind once more he looked sternly at her.

"You must always be prepared for someone to try to read your thoughts. Do not ever let your guard down. Control your emotions."

She looked down at the floor and he felt bad for having to push her so much. If it was Potter or someone else he would almost take joy in it but it wasn't. It was Hermione and he was slowly learning that they both had much more in common than he would have ever thought.

They both had made huge sacrifices for the war, life changing events that would change how they looked at life completely. The only difference was she had pushed through her misery, whereas he had drowned himself in his.

She remained silent looking at the floor.

"Hermione, if you want to talk about anything when we are done, you know I will listen. For now though we _must_ work as hard as we can."

Nodding she seemed to steel herself against the rest of her memories she would have to relive and looked at him head-on with a new spark in her eye. Ah, Gryffindors. Oh well, if it got her to remain focused he would be thankful for their determination.

"_Legilimens_."

They continued to practice for two hours when Severus finally decided enough was enough. She started out going back and forth between being able to block him out of her emotions to not being able to put up a fight at all. The last hour though she steadily made him remain as a bystander.

Now though, she looked as if she might pass out and he understood perfectly. Having one's mind invaded repeatedly wasn't a pleasant experience. It left one completely drained and a major headache on top of it all. He was about to put away his wand and walk over to her when her voice stopped him.

"Why don't you ever view any of my recent memories? It almost seems like you are constantly going backwards in time."

He scrunched his brow together. He had thought she would appreciate the fact that he had avoided any recent memories of hers. It was too close to the present and he felt too much an invasion of her privacy.

"Not to seem presumptuous, but I figured many of your recent memories would involve me and I didn't want to invade your privacy on matters concerning us. I wanted to allow you the chance to tell me what you wanted to when you wanted to. Not have it forced out into the open by me invading your mind."

She seemed to think over what he said for a moment and suddenly it dawned on him. This would be what would get her to push him out. There probably were things in her mind that she didn't want him to know and that would allow her to know how it felt to push someone out.

Hopefully he was right, otherwise she would probably hex the hell out of him after this and he would have to allow her to. Without allowing himself to think on it anymore he raised his wand.

"_Legilimens_!"

She was guarding her mind but he pushed past it trying to get her to double her fight. If she knew he was actually pushing against her walls, she'd put up more of an effort.

_She was watching him stir potions. He always was so graceful when he was brewing. Not that he wasn't graceful all the time. She wished he hadn't been her professor, although then she probably wouldn't be as good as she was in potions. Maybe then he would actually see her as more than a student._

He pushed harder trying to find a memory she wouldn't want him to have such access to.

_He was kissing her. She couldn't believe it, hell she couldn't think of anything but how his lips felt on hers. He was amazing. If he was this good at kissing, imagine how he would be in bed. Oh if only she could get him in her bed. _

He felt her trying to push him away from her actual thoughts and he smirked. Good girl. He decided to stay in this memory just a tad longer.

_She was mildly shocked at herself. She had never thought about jumping in a bed with anyone else. Why was she thinking like this with him? Oh Merlin, his mouth just moved to her ear. _

Finally, he felt himself being pushed out into a third-person perspective. He genuinely smiled. Pushing harder he found another memory.

_Hermione woke up sweating and breathing heavy. "Oh bloody hell, now I'm even dreaming about him doing _that_."_

_She stumbled to the shower promptly getting undressed._

Severus quickly pushed to another memory when he caught a glimpse of her backside. Which was very nice, but his reasons weren't to pleasure himself with an image of her naked. He needed to find a memory that would cause her to fight with all her strength to get him out.

Pushing harder into her mind he finally came to their last conversation in his office. He wondered what led him to this memory before remembering she had refused to tell him something. Pushing harder he found himself able to feel her emotions again.

_Hermione looked at him frustrated. Why couldn't he understand? He _was _her future, everything about him made her happy. Without him, she would be nothing. How she became so dependent on him so quickly she didn't know but she did know one thing. She, Hermione Jean Granger, had fallen-_

Before he knew it he felt a wall crash into him and next thing he knew he was falling backwards having to catch himself on the couch behind him. She had pushed him out of her mind. He wanted to question her about what he had almost seen but decided against it.

Panting slightly, he straightened himself up tugging his sleeves back down into place and sheathing his wand.

"Congratulations, you just pushed me out of your mind."

She looked at him with a mixture of anger, shock, and embarrassment. Ignoring his compliment she addressed him.

"Why did you do that? Why all of a sudden go through recent memories concerning you?"

"To be fair, you brought it up. I just suddenly realized that those were memories that you, without a doubt, probably wouldn't want me to see. Those would be the ones you would fight to keep me out of. I was correct."

She seemed to be contemplating whether to hex him or thank him before slowly relaxing her face from the scowl it had been. She looked as if she was about to say something when suddenly she clutched her head and crumpled to the floor.

Severus hurried over to her, not that he hadn't been expecting her to collapse. Honestly, he was quite shocked she had lasted has long as she had.

"Come on, you'll need a pick-me-up and head calming potion."

Gently, he grabbed her hand in one hand and with his other supported her by her waist. She slowly stood up, leaning most of her weight on him. He carefully guided them to the bookshelf that was against the back wall.

Pulling his wand out, he tapped a specific sequence of books before the bookshelf shimmered before their eyes and disappeared leaving a wooden door in its place.

Noticing Hermione's questioning gaze he smirked.

"I'm rarely here and I can't risk having muggles accidently stumbling across a lab full of potions if they choose to break in, can I?"

With that he led them down the stairs into his lab which looked almost exactly the same as his lab at Hogwarts. He prided himself with all the ingredients he had collected filling almost every wall with neatly labeled jars and vials.

There were all kinds of instruments and cauldrons used to brew with spread out on tables and counters. The room was lit by an ornate, yet not gaudy, chandelier. Leading her through his lab towards the door on the opposite wall, they entered a smaller room, but still equally impressive.

He had vials of many types of potions he had already brewed and kept in his stores. Being a spy for Voldemort he learned one could never be too certain what he might encounter and it was best to have all sorts of potions ready.

He held up his hand, silently catching a vial of pick-me-up he wordlessly accioed without his wand. Handing it to her he summoned the head calming potion that would cause the splitting headache she surely had to go away.

Watching as she drank the first potion and then handing her the second one, watching her down it as well, he thought how beautiful she was even exhausted. He growled to himself. He needed to be getting her to his couch where she could rest and here he was gawking at her beauty like some fool.

Before he could get distracted again he led her back upstairs into the living room. Behind them the bookshelf shimmered back into view, as real and solid as it had been before they entered his labs. Noticing Hermione was gaining her strength back he left her standing beside the couch to cast a quick scourgifying spell on it before sitting her down on it.

"Thank you."

"It was no problem. You were exhausted and needed the potions otherwise you would have passed out for hours."

She looked at him, grabbing his hand and he briefly closed his eyes relishing her touch before opening them to look at her.

"Not just that, but pushing me to finally block you from my memories. I know you weren't just being nosey. Maybe now, I can build off of that to block off all of my memories, not just the ones I find pertinent to keep secret."

She really was an amazing woman. He was expecting at least one biting remark but she hadn't thrown any at him once she calmed down. He wanted to hold her but refrained from doing so instead sitting beside where her feet were laying.

Wordlessly, she shifted positions and laid her head in his lap. Startled, he froze and then started gently running his hand through her hair. She slightly shifted her head where she was looking up at him.

He wasn't one for clichés, but good Merlin she looked like a goddess at that moment. All thought of resisting her left his mind as he gently lifted her head with his hand underneath it and bent his face down to hers.

They weren't at Hogwarts and he sure as hell wasn't about to give up a chance of kissing her without having to worry if the bloody walls were going to tell on them. What made it worse was that he meant that quite literally.

As their lips met he felt a spark shoot through him and he groaned feeling her smooth, soft lips massage his. When he felt her wind her hands in his hair, he deepened the kiss.

His tongue explored her mouth tasting hints of the potions he had given her and a taste that was all together her. It was as if vanilla and strawberries mixed to make a flavor all their own that could only amount to Hermione.

He felt her move and let out another groan realizing she had sat up and was now straddling his lap. Feeling himself harden, he gripped her waist. She let out a small squeal when she brushed up against him and he opened his eyes a bit to see her blushing before chuckling and pulling her harder against him, enjoying the feel of her.

Her lips left his and for a moment he thought he had went too far and for once she wasn't wanting to do anything more than kiss when he felt her lips descend onto his neck. He moved a hand to her hair, letting out a contented sigh.

Really, he should stop all this. He should stop it all and not allow it to go any further, but bugger they were all alone in his house and when would be the next time they would get the chance to just enjoy each other?

His hand slid up under her shirt until his fingers reached her bra, which from the feel of it was quite lazy. His shy, quiet Hermione wearing lace? How else would she continue to surprise him?

He allowed his hand to rest there for a moment giving her a chance to stop him. When he felt her teeth on his ear and heard her moaning his name in his ear he took it as sign enough to move forward, relishing at the sound of his name on her lips when she was so obviously aroused.

First he gently swept over the outside of her bra, noticing how nicely her breast fit in his hand. Not too large, not too small. Then pulling her mouth back to his he smoothly slipped his hand under her bra feeling her smooth skin against his palm, teasing her with his fingers.

She let out a small moan and grasped his jacket. He was mildly shocked when she started trying to undo his buttons but didn't protest. She had saved his life; she knew the scars that were dug into his neck. No point in being shy about her seeing them.

He reached behind her back unclasping her bra giving him better access. He noticed her hands were still shaking and she was fumbling with his buttons. He smirked and moved his lips down to her neck.

She groaned and tilted her neck to give him easier access. Unfortunately, this also made it that much harder for her to unbutton his shirt. He sniggered at her when he heard her let out and exasperated sigh.

"Bugger it." With that she pulled out her wand and magically undid all his buttons on not only his jacket but his shirt as well, which therefore undid his cravat in the process.

"Anxious, my dear?" he whispered into her ear.

"You have no idea," she groaned back.

He felt her hands run across his chest and he hissed at the feel of it. No woman had ever taken the time to admire him with their touch and this was just exactly what Hermione was doing. He relished the feel.

His lips found themselves moving down to her collarbone before he hastily decided her shirt was definitely in his way and promptly pulled it over her head. This action caused her unfastened bra to slide right off and his eyes appraised her body as she blushed.

"You are beautiful," he whispered gruffly before planting a trail of kisses on her breasts.

He let his lips hover over her before gently taking a nipple into his mouth. Her heard her sharp intake of breath before her hands immediately tangled themselves in his hair.

"Oh, Severus."

He moved to lay her down on the couch and readjusted himself on top of her. Oh Merlin, the feel of her under him was going to drive him insane. He felt her pushing at his shirt and jacket and allowed her to take them off of him leaving them both in nothing but pants.

Finding his mouth on her lips again, he kissed her soundly, his hand finding her breast and massaging it. He was shocked when he felt her hands trailing down his chest and stomach to land on his belt, but then again she had stated repeatedly she wanted this. Who was he to keep stopping her?

Just when she was about to loosen his belt, a knock came from the front door. Severus snatched his head up, looking at the door like he was ready to murder it.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me."

He glanced back at Hermione who looked like she was about to faint from fear. Great, he finally gave in to what she was wanting and someone had to come and knock on the bloody door. Now that he had gotten over his reservations she would probably be too scared to do anything ever again. Bugger.

"Stay still. I'll handle it."

Getting up he cast a disillusionment charm on her and walked over to the door not even worrying about putting his shirt back on. He could claim he had some whore upstairs if it came to it, although he hated to bring that topic up in front of Hermione.

Snatching the door open, his doorstep was seemingly empty. Until he looked down. Oh, now this was just plain ridiculous! If he wasn't sure she was a muggle and that he would be thrown into Azkaban quicker than if he screamed to the minister himself that he wanted to shag his apprentice and previous student he would have hexed the overly cheerful little girl into oblivion.

"What do you think you're doing knocking on my door," he sneered. Apparently the little girl couldn't take a hint, although she did shift her feet nervously before responding.

"I'm from the Girl Scout Association and would like to know if you want to buy some cookies to help us earn money?" She smiled up at him, showing she was missing a tooth.

Some snaggledtooth brat had interrupted him and Hermione. What were the chances? Obviously he was doomed to live a life of hell. Even when he found happiness it was just there to torment him.

He tried to put forth his lowest, silkiest voice that he knew came off as completely menacing to his students bending down towards the little girl.

"I suggest you take your _cookies_," he spat with disgust, "somewhere else."

The little girl seemingly got the message that time because she gulped and ran off without saying another word. Slamming the door he turned around, disabling the charm he put on Hermione, to find her laughing hysterically.

"And what, may I ask, do you find so funny?"

"You bullying a seven year old because she came between you getting some." With that she burst into another fit of laughter. "You know you really should have bought some of those cookies. They are divine," she said trying to mock seriousness before laughing again.

"You know what would be divine, Hermione? Not being interrupted from having my way with you."

He glanced at her noticing she had put her bra back on but still hadn't managed to put her shirt on. Well, there went _that_ going any further. He walked over and sat down beside her with a huff, pulling his white shirt loose from his jacket and slipping it back on but leaving it unbuttoned.

"I have to say, Severus, you look very sexy in a white shirt. I forget you wear something besides black under all those robes," she teased.

"Shut it, woman." He tried glaring back at her, but it was impossible to be mad at the woman and he fumed at that fact as well.

Leaning in he kissed her gently, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer to him.

"Well, now that all that is over, we might as well discuss what to do about the whole reason we are here."

She looked up at him curiously before realization seemed to dawn on her face. "Oh you mean about practicing Occlumency? Well, honestly I thought about it a lot before now and I may have come up with a start to a solution."

He eyed her waiting for what she was going to say. Of course, she came up with something. She always thought she had answers. Maybe for both their sakes this time she had a brilliant one, even for her.

"Hear me out first because I know you will argue with me to begin with."

"Alright I will let you finish before emitting my opinion of your plan."

"Ok, I think you need to go talk to Dumbledore." She stopped at the incredulous look he was giving her. "Don't give me that look! I know he's a painting but he might just have an answer. He certainly knows the castle better than anyone else. It wouldn't hurt at least. Unless of course you have something better."

Severus wanted to argue, he couldn't see where this plan would get them anywhere, but he couldn't since he hadn't come up with anything at all. Damn her and her seemingly easy solutions to everything. She had hung around Potter too long.

"And I suppose it will be up to me to find a way to sneak in there without McGonagall noticing?"

"I can help distract her. Say I need to talk to her or something. Please Severus; he could help give us clarity on whether we are safe within the castle and how to seek a place to practice."

Severus contemplated it. It was a very simple idea, but she had a point. Dumbledore did know more than anyone else about the magic within the castle and how it worked. Plus he was on their side about them being a couple so he wouldn't rat them out. Drat, she had laid out her poison and he was allowing it to be fed down his throat.

"Very well, but only to appease you. No more meetings until after I talk to him though."

"Fine, but that means we have to arrange it as soon as possible. I think we should do it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" That was ridiculous. How would they come up with a good plan by then?

"Yes, I'll say I need McGonagall to give me some advice but it's something I need to discuss in the privacy of my own rooms. When she gets there I will send a letter directly to you and you can head to her office. I can guarantee a good twenty minutes but no more."

If he hadn't been a spy half of his life he would have shot her plan down in an instant. As it was, he was used to errands that were risky like this one was and used to working his way out of sticky situations. Thank Merlin he was a Slytherin.

"Fine. What time should I expect this letter?"

"Around seven. That way the halls will be emptier."

He nodded his assent, not believing he had just allowed her to make a plan that quickly. What else would he end up doing for her so easily? He shuddered at the thought.

Turning to her he sighed wanting her to stay with him. It wasn't possible though, she had an alibi for this morning, but not the rest of the afternoon. It wouldn't look good for them both to be gone too long when under so much scrutinization.

"Now my dear, I'm afraid you need to leave. If not Filch will start with his nasty rumors again, not that I care except for your reputation."

Hermione groaned and curled up closer against him. He felt her gently kiss his neck before standing up and hated Filch and Minerva at the moment. If it wasn't for them they could have stayed here all day. He never thought there would be a time when he didn't want to leave this bloody house but here it was.

He watched as she threw her shirt back on and smirked at him deviously.

"I fully expect a continuation of this the next time we get a chance."

"But of course." He watched as a slight blush went across her face despite the fact that she was the one to bring it up. He assumed she simply had to get used to him being forward and brushed it off.

"I will see you later?"

"Indeed, now go before I change my mind about allowing you to leave."

She bit her lip and bent down to give him another kiss before walking to the door. He watched as she paused with her hand on the handle seemingly torn between leaving and trying to distract him into letting her stay.

She sent one more glance his way before opening the door. "I expect you to make up for this interruption later." With that she winked at him before practically running outside and slamming the door behind her.

Good Merlin she was going to be the death of him. With that he summoned a bottle of firewhiskey and a tumbler.

**A/N: So there you guys go. Super long chapter to make up for the time it took to update. I hope you all enjoyed it, I had so much fun writing this chapter. I would also like to thank FalconLux for giving me her opinion on some points in the story and for giving me some brilliant ideas. Let me know what you think by reviewing! They definitely make my day. **

**Also, I'm wondering if I should move up the rating to M, so let me know in a PM or something. I'm not sure of the exact line of when sexual innuendo becomes too much, I don't plan on this becoming a lemon but I do want to put some detail into it. Let me know what you think on that as well.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Just a forewarning, Severus' and Hermione's pov for the most part is going on at the same time hence the constant switch. I wanted to keep up the suspense and make it interesting. I hope I did it in a way that is easy and entertaining to read. Enjoy!**

Hermione paced her room trying to figure out just how she was supposed to get McGonagall in her rooms. Why had she been so foolish and not discussed this with Severus to greater depths? _He _had been the spy during the war, not her. It should have been obvious to request more of his input on the matter.

Why hadn't he given her any? Why did she have to act like she knew exactly what she was doing? Bugger her and her incessant need to be a know-it-all. This would fail and then Severus would laugh in her face about what a fool she had been. Not that he had offered any ideas of his own.

Pacing, she twisted her hands nervously while chewing on her lip. She had to think, and quick. Glancing at the clock she realized they wouldn't have much longer before McGonagall would go to bed and their chance would be over.

Turning around violently from frustration she almost knocked over a potion vial she had brought to her room. Waving her wand to pause it in mid-air, an idea suddenly hit her full force. Potions. That was it!

Quickly, before any more time was wasted, she scrawled out a note to McGonagall.

_Headmistress McGonagall,_

_It is imperative that you meet me in the potions lab immediately. I have an idea for a new potion, but Professor Snape stated since I would be brewing it on school grounds I would need you to grant permission. I hope that I am not bothering you, as I am extremely excited to get started as quickly as possible and show you what I have in mind._

_Thanks, _

_Hermione Granger_

Tapping the letter with her wand, she sent the letter to McGonagall and rushed out the door.

She had no clue what she would do once McGonagall actually got there, Severus had yet to show the complexities of inventing a potion, but hopefully she could come up with something. Even better maybe she could find some of his notes on ideas he has had and hasn't gotten around to.

Entering his office she saw him sitting behind his desk looking oddly calm considering the circumstances. She figured that had to do with having to spy during the war. He probably had to do much harder missions than this. It almost made their current situation seem silly.

He looked up at her startled. "Hermione?"

"Sorry change of plans." She walked over to his desk hoping to quickly explain enough for him to have a clue what was going on, but not be caught talking to him when McGonagall got there. "I'm creating a potion; you demanded I get permission from the headmistress."

With that she turned on her heel and marched into his lab. Quickly scanning over ingredients she snatched some fluxweed, pomegranate juice, and rat tail. She prayed with all her heart that she could pull this off.

Just then she heard the door open and close. Voices reached her ears and she assumed Severus was conversing with McGonagall what she had told him. She didn't know what excuse he would use to leave, but that was his problem to deal with. Right now she had to figure out a liable potion recipe.

* * *

Severus watched dumbfounded as Hermione ran into his lab slamming the door. Obviously, there had been a change in her plans which pointed to the fact that she hadn't had it all perfectly planned as she portrayed at his house. Very well, he would make it work.

Hearing bottles clanking in the lab, he wondered just what kind of recipe she would come up with that would convince Minerva this wasn't a hoax. He hadn't had time to explain any of the properties of certain ingredients. All he could hope was that all the brewing she had been doing had given her an idea of what certain ingredients were capable of.

He tensed up when he hear the door open and automatically stood beside his desk, straightening his back. Whatever was going to happen he needed to at least look professional, although he figured Minerva wouldn't care how he looked. She had seen his facades during the war, nothing would lessen her suspicion.

"Good evening, Severus."

"Minerva. How are you?"

"Very well, Severus. Miss Granger owled me stating she was told she needed my permission to start working on her own potion experiment."

"Indeed. I informed her it was up to you in the end, this is your school after all." Severus could have sworn he saw her lips turn up in a small smile at that statement and he almost scoffed.

"Will you be showing me what she has planned?" Minerva motioned towards the door to his lab.

"No, unfortunately Miss Granger will have to show you for herself. I have looked over her notes and trust that she can explain sufficiently well what she wants to do without me there. I have other pressing matters to attend to at the moment but should be back within the hour."

"Ah, very well. If you think she is capable of showing me I'm sure she is. I will see you around, Severus, perhaps in my office?" She smiled at him looking up over her glasses.

"Excuse me?" All his senses from the war started screaming there was more behind her words than literally portrayed. He kept his face impassive as he awaited her response.

"For tea, of course. We haven't had a casual conversation since the end of the war." Her smile warmed considerably as if nothing odd had went between the two.

Severus eyed her warily up and down before slowly responding. "Yes, of course, tea. Any time, Minerva."

With that Minerva walked over to the wooden door and knocked twice, sharply. He didn't tear his gaze away until she was inside and the door firmly shut.

Throwing his cloak behind him, causing it to have its signature billow, he walked out of the door. Heading to her office, his mind started racing. They could get into some serious trouble. A scowl swept across his face as his brows furrowed.

What was he nervous about Minerva for? True, she was powerful, but he was more so. That wasn't arrogance speaking, but the fact he had outdueled her several times. Not to mention he managed to lie to Voldemort and keep his cool. If he could do that, he could certainly worm his way out of a situation with Minerva.

Marching through the corridors, he spotted a pair of Ravenclaws snogging passionately in a corner by a suit of armor.

"Twenty points from Ravenclaw and I suggest you get back to your tower before I take more."

Never stopping, he smirked as he heard them scurry off as quickly as possible. Even after being declared a hero of the war students were still terrified of him. He was glad that, while the Ministry still posed a pain in his arse, the students still treated him the same.

At first, he was worried they would all mock him, or worse, pity him. Neither of which would have done him any good. Fortunately, his dark presence, even with it revealed he could in fact love someone, was still as fearsome to students as always. He assumed being able to manipulate the Dark Lord had something to do with that as well.

Climbing more stairs on the way to Minerva's office, his thoughts went back to the ridiculous plan Hermione had brewed up. Obviously, she was trying to get them both thrown into Azkaban. What would talking to a ridiculous painting be able to do? Dumbledore was wise and well-respected but there was only so much influence a mere canvas could have.

Sighing, he finally reached the stone gargoyle and muttering the password, he ascended the stairs that were revealed.

* * *

Hermione was peering in at the Wolfbane potion when Minerva walked in. Thankfully the potion would be done well after their scheme was over with, giving her and Severus time to talk over everything that had happened before getting to work, without looking suspicious. Squaring her shoulders she turned and faced McGonagall with a pleasant smile plastered on her face.

It was hard to believe that this woman whom she had looked up to as a type of mother was now the main problem that was causing her and Severus to sneak around the way they were. She knew McGonagall held a soft spot for her, but she didn't think it was enough to try to make decisions for her. Especially decisions that concerned her love life.

"Headmistress, how are you?"

Hermione noticed the older woman glancing around the lab and curiously wondered if she had ever been in Severus' private lab before. She had almost forgotten how private Severus could be since he had been opening up to her. Hopefully she hadn't made him mad by asking the woman to come down here.

"Very well, Miss Granger and yourself?" McGonagall peered over her glasses once more and Hermione suddenly grew nervous at her gaze.

"Fine, if you would like I can get started showing you what I am hoping to start working on, with your permission of course."

Hermione decided a little sweetness never killed anyone and moved over closer to the table ready to lie her teeth off if she had to. When McGonagall didn't move from the door she slowly glanced up at her questioningly.

"Headmistress?"

The Headmistress' lips thinned considerably and she gave Hermione a look the closely resembled one she had given Harry and Ron many times when they had gotten caught breaking rules. Her palms started getting sweaty and she felt her mouth go completely dry. Something was not right.

"Hermione, I am no fool and I would hope you would not take me for one."

She knew. Hermione didn't know how she knew but she did and this was about to be it. Severus would be hauled off to Azkaban and her future career would be ruined. Not to mention they would never get to see each other again.

Hermione internally scolded herself. She had to get a grip maybe that was not what McGonagall was talking about at all. Maybe she just realized Hermione didn't know as much about creating a potion as she was acting like she thought she did.

"What do you mean?"

"Severus is on his way to my office is he not?" The headmistress looked at Hermione with a knowing look.

It took all Hermione could to keep her face impassive. Her heart was racing and she knew one little slip up could cost them everything. If nothing else she had to keep her emotions in check. It wouldn't do to waste what little progress they had accomplished by just admitting to the whole thing.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Oh really? I know more than you think I know Miss Granger and I would suggest you speak the truth. If you lie and you are found out it will present you with more problems than you would have otherwise."

Hermione just stared at her unsure of what exactly to say to the woman. Before long, McGonagall started to speak again, her words becoming tenser, causing Hermione to grow even more nervous.

"He is using you Miss Granger. Mark my words. You will be nothing more than someone to warm his bed. When he realizes he is still in love with Lily he will leave and what will you be left with? A broken heart and a ruined reputation. He will move on in life as Severus normally does. It wouldn't besmirch his reputation; he has far worse allegations on him than taking advantage of a young girl."

Here, McGonagall paused to eye Hermione's reaction. Hermione for one was looking like someone had just slapped her in the face. She couldn't believe what Minerva McGonagall had just said to her about Severus. It was one thing not to want them together but to insinuate that all Severus wanted was an easy shag. What had he ever done to deserve such ridiculous slander?

Try as hard as she could, Hermione could feel her anger boiling up. The woman could slander their relationship all she wanted, but_ not_ Severus. After all he had been through he did not deserve it.

"I will have you know, _Headmistress_, that Severus is a perfect gentleman and not at all like you are portraying him! After all he did in the war you should be ashamed of yourself."

"So you admit there _is_ something going on between you two?"

Hermione felt her face go red and couldn't believe that the woman in front of her used to be a Gryffindor, much less the head of house. At the moment, she was using completely Slytherin tactics and Hermione didn't like it one bit.

"No! Although, I don't see what the big deal is. I am grown, I did my years as a student, and I am simply his apprentice. There are no laws against age differences once a witch or wizard is of age! In fact, if you carefully read _Hogwarts: A History_ you would be aware of a girl that was with her professor as a student, but after being tried it was decided nothing could be done since she was of age and he wasn't showing favoritism!"

"Ah, yes, I remember that quite well, but this is Severus Snape we are talking about. Not some professor seventy years ago."

Hermione felt like she was about to explode with anger and became vaguely aware that she was gripping her wand rather tightly. Fortunately, she was pointing it at the stone floor and not the Headmistress in front of her. Then she would be in trouble.

After a silent pause, Hermione looked scathingly at McGonagall and almost hissed her next response. Maybe being around Severus so much was causing his personality to rub off on her. At the moment, she was glad if it was.

"And what, may I ask, do you have against Severus Snape?"

McGonagall let out a small sigh and her face softened to the smallest degree. If Hermione hadn't been around her so many years she wouldn't have even noticed.

"I have nothing but the utmost respect for Severus. He was a great student and played a tremendous role in the war, as you have already mentioned, that I can't even imagine having to do. What that boy went through, Merlin only knows. But, he is tainted by that past Hermione and I will not watch him drag you down into it. He will cause you nothing but misery. I will not stand by and watch."

It suddenly clicked in Hermione's head that McGonagall wasn't trying to keep them apart to be hateful, but that she was just trying to protect her. Hermione felt her anger ebb away slightly at that thought. She knew the woman had always held a warm spot for her, but not to that degree.

Even if she was looking out for her, it still did not take away from what she was saying about Severus. He wasn't even the one that had constantly tried to push things further. It had been her. Although, if she remembered correctly he would have taken things much farther yesterday if they had not been interrupted.

A blush spread across her face and she tried to bring her focus back to what was at hand. Quietly she looked at her previous head of house and tried to be understanding.

"You are wrong about him. He may not have the best past and I may not know everything about what went on in it, but I know him now. He would never hurt me."

McGonagall took a step towards her for the first time during the entire conversation and looked at her almost pityingly.

"I wish I could believe you, Miss Granger, but I've known him far longer than you have and I can't. I will do what it takes to make sure he stays away from you. Once I gather adequate proof you two are together I will use it to ensure he can't be near you, do you understand?"

Hermione just stared at the woman in shock and the weight of the situation caused her to drop her wand. The clatter of it hitting the floor caused her to jump and she realized she had tears rolling down her face.

Gathering all her courage she stared at the woman that was threatening to take away the happiness she had found.

"I love him."

"I'm sure you do, but does he love you?"

With that McGonagall turned around and left the lab. Hermione clutched at the workspace in front of her, realizing her hands were shaking. Unable to form coherent thoughts she squatted down and fumbled to pick up her wand off of the floor.

The minute her hand enclosed on it, she let herself collapse and dissolve into tears.

* * *

Severus entered the office and quickly marched over to Dumbledore's painting. He didn't know how long Minerva would stay with Hermione and he would rather not have to play spy again if he could help it. Merlin knows, he thought his days of sneaking around were over after the war. Now he was breaking into the headmistress' office like some meddlesome school-boy.

"Ah, good evening Severus. I was wondering when you would stop by." Even as a painting Albus' eyes were twinkling and Severus silently cursed the old man.

"Yes, well, I have a pressing matter I must discuss with you." He grimaced before cutting to the chase. "Miss Granger seems to think you will know a solution to our problems pertaining to Filch and Minerva."

"So you two are together? That is splendid, my boy! I'm sure Miss Granger will present your life with quite a change for the better."

Damn him and his twinkling eyes. Could he not just have an ordinary conversation with the man for once?

"I would have you know, she needs to learn Occlumency and with such allegations flying around we need a place to meet that nobody will be aware of. She thinks the castle ideal, but I am afraid with Minerva being Headmistress this is not entirely safe."

"That is where you are wrong. You are still Headmaster of this school Severus."

Severus looked at the man like he had lost his mind. "Albus, has inhaling oil fumes caused you to lose all sanity? Obviously, I am not headmaster or I would still hold this as my office."

"Maybe to the ministry, but to the castle until one's death once titled headmaster one is always headmaster. Not to fear, the castle will aid you, particularly since you have now voiced your need so openly."

"So you are saying, as far as the castle is concerned, I have more power than Minerva?"

Severus mind was spinning. He was still headmaster? At least, as far as the castle was concerned. This would change everything; he and Hermione would have it much easier now. He could relax, if only he knew how it would help him.

"How will it help me?" He eyed the painting warily.

"I would think a bit of pacing around your rooms would suffice."

There he goes with his eyes again. Why couldn't Albus ever just simply say what he meant? Nothing could ever be simple with him. Very well, he didn't have time to risk staying any longer and he had gotten what he had come for.

"Thank you, Albus. I must return to my lab now, good evening." Severus gave the painting a small bow before turning and starting to the door.

"Oh and Severus? Do tell Miss Granger I said hello will you, although I'm sure you two will be busy discussing other matters. Good evening."

Severus only gave a curt nod to signify he had heard what was said before flying down the stairs. So he was still headmaster and they both needed to search their rooms. This should be interesting.

Keeping to the shadows he made his way back to his lab. On the second floor he watched as a tense Minerva strode back to her office and silently wondered what exactly had occurred between her and Hermione. She didn't look too happy and his worry suddenly increased.

Quickening his stride after she passed, he quickly made his way back to his office. Upon opening the door and seeing no sign of Hermione he made his way over to the door of his lab. What he saw shocked him. Hermione Granger was on the floor with sobs wracking her body.

Without another thought he swept her into his arms and sitting on the cold stone floor allowed her to cry into his robes. Whatever Minerva had said to cause her so much distress he would find out later. At the moment, all he could focus on was getting the bushy haired girl that he had grown to care so much about to calm down.

**A/N: So there you go. Sorry it took so long, but honestly after the response I got from the last chapter that I worked incredibly hard on, I haven't had much motivation to write. If there was something you didn't like about it please let me know. Like I've said I love reviews and they are my main motivation to keep writing. I hope this chapter revealed a good bit of stuff for you guys and you enjoyed it, as short as it may be. I definitely will not take as long to update again. **

**Also, I wrote a one-shot called, A Falling of Heroes, if you want to check it out. It is about Hermione and Severus in the boat house.**


	15. Chapter 15

Severus felt her tears soaking through his shirt and felt anger surge throughout his body. Her sobs were causing her entire body to shake and he wanted to hunt Minerva McGonagall down and curse her into oblivion. Nothing, not even challenging society, should cause this much distress to someone so young.

His anger shocked him. He normally could tolerate Minerva and even their house rivalry was portrayed with the utmost respect for the most part. Minerva had been his professor when he was a student and he had never seemed to lose that obligatory respect that comes from being someone's student.

A respect he assumed Hermione either never had or quickly lost for him. At least, he hoped she had lost it if she ever had it, which he assumed she had, this_ was _Hermione Granger. It would be very awkward if she couldn't see past him once being her professor with the relationship they were pursuing.

Feeling her fingers curl themselves into his hair he looked down at the young woman he was holding in his arms. Hearing her sobs slow down a slight bit, he tilted her face up and kissed the corners of her eyes, reaching to wipe away the tears from her face.

Slowly she looked up at him with water shimmering in her eyes, threatening to start falling again. "Severus, Minerva, she will find us out. I don't know what to do."

He pulled her forehead to him kissing her gently. The way she spoke, like her whole world was ending, held more magnitude to how she felt than her ever saying the words to him could. Part of him just wanted to hold her in his arms like he was doing now all night, but it would be wrong to allow her to think they had no hope when he knew they had nothing but hope.

He had the solution to all their problems if he could just figure out how to activate it and he must tell her what he found out.

"Hermione, sh, you were right."

She looked up at him in confusion and he almost laughed at her but refrained from doing so, only allowing a small smile to spread out over his face.

"Albus is _not _just a painting and I'm still headmaster."

Unexpectedly, Hermione snatched herself out of his arms and he found himself looking up at an extremely angered woman. What the bloody hell?

"You are headmaster and McGonagall dares to sit in _your _office? What the hell Severus? March up there and take it back! This will solve everything!"

Quickly, he stood up feeling a bit better now that he was the one looking down at her, but still perplexed all the same. Didn't she understand? She was the brightest witch of her age; certainly she should know that wasn't possible. He should have just told her outright, now he had to deal with her in a rage.

"Hermione, it is not that simple."

"What is not simple? You could out-duel her in a minute! You are the strongest wizard alive now that Dumbledore and Voldemort are dead! Hell, you were probably stronger than them." Hermione threw her hands up emphasizing her point and her frustration.

Severus ran a hand through his hair becoming just as frustrated as Hermione. He felt a twinge of pride through his frustration about her thinking he was so powerful. Unfortunately, the frustration overpowered it. Before he knew it he was yelling at her as if she was his student again.

"Hermione, do you not think I would love to have my rightful position as headmaster over this school back? That I would like to finally have something of my own after everything I've done to benefit everyone else? It is not my lack of want that is keeping me from going up there; it is the fact that the ministry would throw me in Azkaban, quicker than you could quote _Hogwarts: A History _as you so often do, for such behavior. They will _never_ allow me to be over this school!"

Hermione looked at him almost pityingly and took a tentative step towards him reaching her hand out to touch the side of his face. He felt his eyelids flutter shut and his shoulders droop.

"Severus, I'm sorry."

He opened his eyes again and straightened back up acting as if nothing had happened.

"Forget it, it's beside the point. The fact of the matter is we have a solution."

He jerked his head up as she snatched her hand off his face and realized she had brought it along with her other hand up to cover her mouth. In fact, her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head.

"Are you serious?" she whispered sounding like she had barely believed what she heard him say.

He rolled his eyes, smirking at her. "Do I look like I'm joking? Of course I'm-"

Hermione cut him off throwing herself on him, engulfing him in a hug that was, quite frankly, cutting off any oxygen supply he was hoping to receive in order to live. Gently prying her arms looser from his neck he looked down at her with one eyebrow raised.

"Oh Severus, how?"

Leaning back against the table behind him, he wrapped his arms loosely around her waist and looked down at her smugly.

"My point in telling you I'm still headmaster was to tell you the castle still sees me as such. As such, it will aid me in ways it wouldn't others. It seems there are some things even that beloved book of yours doesn't know."

"Oh you!" She slapped him playfully on the chest before standing on her toes and kissing him.

Severus leaned into her lips dipping his head to deepen the kiss when she snatched back.

"Wait, how will it aid you though?"

Severus let out a low growl as he laid his hand on her shoulder in frustration. As elated as he was that they now had a solution, somewhat, to their problem he was frustrated beyond belief. Physically with Hermione and mentally with Albus. Honestly, if the man had been blunter he could happily be snogging the amazing woman leaning against him, not being interrupted to figure out a cryptic message that he had no clue where to even start.

"How the hell am I supposed to know, all he said was pacing in my room would help."

"Pacing in your room? How is that supposed to help?"

Ignoring her he started placing kisses on her shoulder slowly going up her neck before reaching that little crevice behind her ear that caused her to issue a moan and grip his own neck. If he couldn't figure out Albus' stupid riddle at the moment at least he could figure out how to earn more reactions from Hermione.

"Severus, we need to figure this out… oh, you are absolutely incorrigible."

He had moved to the other side of her neck and was currently paying great attention to her earlobe. After he statement he smirked knowing he was winning and decided to give her a taste of wanting more and being told no that she had given him.

Bringing his lips right by her ear, hovering carefully so as not to actually touch her, he breathed his next statement, relishing in her squirming. "Well I guess that means it is time to check on your potion, my dear."

Without giving her even a second to retaliate he swiftly spun them around leaving her breathing heavily against the table. He walked over to peer into the cauldron that contained the Wolfsbane and smirked when he heard her mumbling under her breath.

"I wasn't _complaining_ that you were incorrigible."

The potion in the cauldron was impeccable as he assumed it would be. When had Hermione ever done anything less than perfect that had to do with a learning environment? It wasn't his recipe but since it was done so well it shouldn't be put to waste. Flicking his wand a stack of parchment flew into his hand as he turned to face Hermione.

"Well done, now I need you to bottle it up and make sure these orders are filled. Realize that being a werewolf is not something most people like known so you are to never act like you filled these orders when around these people, do I make myself clear?"

"You mean I did it correctly? It is fine?"

She bobbed up and down on her toes looking elated at the fact she had managed to brew it correctly the first time. Unfortunately for her, the stress of figuring out what Albus meant plus being in a learning setting had caused Severus to go into "professor" mode. He almost snarled at her comment and she suddenly quieted herself down.

"Of course it turned out correctly. Did you really expect yourself capable of anything less than perfect? Now, I will be outside in my office. Meet me in there when you are done."

Her eyes dimmed considerably and he felt a pang of guilt towards his actions. He hadn't meant to be harsh towards her, but the weight of all the events of tonight were suddenly weighing down on him. What made it worse was that this night was far from over. He knew neither him nor Hermione would sleep a wink until they figured out what Albus meant.

He watched as she moved beside him, grabbing the orders from him and reaching for a ladle without even looking at him. Quickly, he leaned down and squeezed her arm. It wasn't much but he hoped it would let her know he wasn't mad at her and help cheer her up again.

"I'll meet you in your office as soon as I'm done."

He frowned at her quiet response but didn't stay any longer. Turning towards the door he walked out of the room almost as quickly as he had entered.

Hermione should know what was in store for her if she wanted to pursue a relationship with him. He told her he didn't know if he would be able to be what she needed and he certainly couldn't change his personality overnight. In fact, he thought the fact that this was the first time he had slipped back into his snarky attitude with her was a feat in itself.

Angrily, he threw his head into his hands. What the bloody hell could Albus have meant?

* * *

Hermione hunched over the cauldron looking into the contents that she had brewed, mostly, by herself. Severus had said it turned out correctly which meant she had done exceptional.

She was actually glad he kept his demeanor professional when it came to her apprenticeship. She would hate it if their relationship biased his opinion of her work. Then she would never be able to become as accomplished of a potion's master as he was. If he started just loading praises on her she would know something was up.

Looking down at the first order, Hermione's eyes widened in shock. Delphine Yurington's name stared up at her. Severus wasn't kidding when he said these were to be kept top secret, not that she thought he was. If she remembered correctly Delphine was over Capturing division of the Dangerous Beasts department. It wouldn't do for anyone to know she was a werewolf. Heck, her own department would turn on her.

Grabbing a vial she carefully filled it up, making sure not to spill any, and put a stopper in it. Reaching below the table she felt around for the box of labels Severus kept and finding them, put one on the vial. She wrote the name of the potion and then packaged it in a conspicuous box.

She went through the other orders as quickly as she could growing more and more shocked at the witches and wizards that were afflicted by the horrible transformation. Maybe Hogwarts should start offering a class solely on defense against a werewolf. That would certainly be more useful than Divination.

She cringed as she remembered that dreadful, completely pointless joke of a class. If she was Severus, she would find a way to use his powers as headmaster to get rid of that waste of time immediately. Unfortunately, she wasn't and he couldn't. Life mysteriously continued to be unfair in such matters pertaining to what was truly right and what society deemed right, even in the wizarding world.

After trailing off into her loathing of Divination, Hermione's mind went to work on the information Severus got from Dumbledore. The fact that he was still headmaster by all rights of this school and was not allowed to take charge of the position made anger boil under her skin. Would the ministry ever learn that for the most part they were not needed nor were they wanted?

As long as she could remember, the so called Ministry of Magic had done nothing but hurt the ones that did good for the wizarding community and aid those that wished to bring bad upon it. It would be a miracle when they finally woke up and realized their mistakes. Not that McGonagall was a bad choice, she certainly had put in her time at this school and had the students' best interest at heart, but it wasn't _her_ position. It was Severus'.

Pulling her mind back to what really mattered she bottled some more potions. What did pacing have to do with anything? Pacing in a room might help them think, but surely it wouldn't accomplish anything? It was just like Dumbledore to tell them the answer without really telling them anything at all. Even as a painting he couldn't learn to just be blunt.

Frowning she grabbed the last order and gasped in shock, a hand flying to her mouth. Susan Bones. Oh poor Susan, it must have happened during the war. It was one thing to realize someone she knew vaguely had been afflicted, but someone she had actually went to school with. It almost broke her heart to realize someone so young now had to live with this the rest of her life due to that awful war.

Wiping a tear off of her face that escaped while staring at the form, she sadly filled the vial and labeled it. Putting it in packaging she wished she could write her some note of condolences to her, but she knew that was impossible.

Silently she wondered how Severus was able to remain impassive to their face while knowing what these people had to deal with. Oh yeah, right, spy against Voldemort and the highest skilled Occlumens she had ever heard of. That, of course, would come in handy when having to refrain from showing he was aware of their condition publicly, even if they knew he was since they ordered it from him. She assumed it made the disease less real to not have people pitying you.

Tapping each bottle, effectively sending it to the owlery to be shipped her mind went back to the problem at hand. Pacing, what required pacing to work besides thinking? What else could be accomplished by pacing that would possibly help them with their problem?

Getting frustrated that she couldn't solve the current puzzle at hand she took an empty vial and threw it hard against the wall. She watched as the glass shattered and winced knowing Severus would be upset at her lack of care towards his lab. Quickly grabbing her wand she muttered the spell to repair the vial and turned around leaning heavily against the table.

Pacing. One little word. She felt her mind throwing up a wall against any thoughts she might be capable of. Groaning she threw her head in her hands. Blasted Dumbledore and his mutterings all they required was- that was it! Pacing said everything!

Excitedly she ran to the door just to have it opened before she could grab the handle. Coming face to face with an excited looking Severus Snape she grinned. Before she could tell him her revelation he spoke.

"The Room-"

"-of Requirements" she cut him off smiling ear to ear.

She didn't know who grabbed who but next thing she knew they were sharing a kiss full of passion and excitement. She felt her feet lift off the ground and squealed realizing Severus was using his height and strength to lift her off the ground never breaking the kiss.

Sitting her feet back down on the floor he grabbed her face in both hands, kissing her repeatedly.

"You wonderful, marvelous, brilliant, woman." He enunciated each word with a kiss displaying how happy he was fully to her for probably one of the first times in his life.

Hermione was elated. They didn't have to worry about getting caught anymore. Severus wasn't holding his emotions back at all. Right now, life was about as perfect as it could get. Even if they couldn't go public just yet they could be happy. They could meet without having to worry about Filch or McGonagall.

When he finally stopped kissing her she wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug. Leaning her head against his chest, relishing the sound of his heart beating she allowed herself to soak in the moment. Hearing his voice rumble in his chest under her ear she pulled away and looked up at him.

"Do you want to go test our hypothesis?" He raised an eyebrow at her with a definite smirk on his face.

"Of course," she grinned back, standing on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the nose before darting off towards his private quarters.

Opening the door she paused in the living area suddenly becoming curious. She turned around to face Severus who was staring at her with a confused look.

"Do you think it matters which room in your rooms?"

He looked around, realizing her point and decided to step in beside her before looking over at her.

"I guess we can start here and if it works fine, if not we can continue to try other rooms.

Hermione nodded a little excited at the idea. She had never been in any other room besides the living area in his quarters and she almost hoped it didn't work in this room. That way she would get a chance to explore and see more of the side of Severus Snape that he kept so private.

She nodded at him to go ahead and watched as he paced, his face obviously portraying how much concentration his was putting into what he was asking for.

Hermione would have been excited to be the one to try out their hypothesis first but since it was his rooms she figured he might be the one that needed to do it. Sure enough, a little to her dismay since it ended any hope of delving further into his rooms, where a bookcase had just been now a door shimmered into view.

Gaping, she looked at Severus to see his eyes narrowed and staring at the door as if calculating whether to open it or not. Not waiting for him to stand around all day she walked in front of him and snatched the door open. He could wait around and be suspicious all he wanted to but she wasn't going to.

As if reading her thoughts he walked into the room and past her sneering.

"I wasn't worried about what this room held in it, I was worried that I just lost a good number of priceless books."

She blushed but chose not to comment anything back because at the moment the room they were in caught her attention. Looking around her mouth fell open at the perfection of this room.

It was large, with each corner seemingly having its own little area devoted to a purpose almost like a studio department.

On the left hand side in the farthest corner there was a small kitchenette, just big enough to cook meals comfortably. It was nothing fancy but then again, Hermione figured it didn't need to be. Its only purpose was probably to help her regain her strength quicker after tiring Occlumency lessons.

Moving down lower on the left hand side was a small table and chairs that Hermione could only assume was meant to go with the little kitchen to eat at and she quickly allowed her gaze to rest on the nearest corner to the left.

Smiling, she decided this was going to most certainly be one of her favorite spots in the room. Bookshelves lined each side of the wall meeting in the corner to create a corner bookshelf that she appreciated greatly. Too much space to put books was wasted by corners not being used properly with most bookshelves.

In front of the bookshelves there were two winged-back chairs facing it with a small table and lamp in between them along with a cozy rug in front of them. It was an extremely cozy, intimate place for her and Severus to read that made her anxious to spend most of her time in here.

Pulling her gaze to the right side of the room in the farthest away corner were walls meeting to create a caddy-cornered room. She wanted to walk over to it to see what it was exactly, deciding it was either a lab or a bathroom until she heard Severus clear his throat.

She directed her gaze to him and realized he was staring at the corner that was nearest them to the right looking mildly uncomfortable. Following his gaze she wondered how she could have ever missed what her eyes now landed on.

Cornered against the wall was a huge canopy bed that, considering how much space it took up, had to be king-sized. A blush spread across Hermione's face as she stared at it shocked, her mind instantly wondering what all might happen in that bed. Had Severus created it in expectations that since they were interrupted at his house they would immediately finish what they had started?

"You must know I didn't ask for a bed to be placed in here. Although, I can't say I'm complaining." He smirked down at her and she blushed even deeper.

As much as she did want him, she was still Hermione Granger and openly talking about such things when they weren't in the heat of the moment, especially hearing them from Severus who was so reserved, would take some getting used to. She tore her gaze away from the bed to look at the middle of the room.

It seemed that there was a slightly sunken down large circle in the floor and pillows were haphazardly thrown around on one side. She silently decided this must be where they would practice Occlumency and was glad for the pillows to protect her if she fell against the hard stone floor.

Deciding to investigate the little closed off room she walked across the floor to the door and snatched it open. Peering inside she became aware of a huge garden tub against the corner with a toilet to the left and a large walk-in shower on the right side. Turning back around and walking back into the main room she glanced at Severus.

"Hermione, do you think this room is preset to an extent? That it may be made for us by what the castle presumes is what we need?"

"It's possible. The magic within the walls of this castle is very complex so it could very well have modified the Room of Requirements to make a stable, home-like setting since, obviously, we will be coming here often."

Scrunching her face up in thought Hermione suddenly realized they hadn't thought to try her rooms. Obviously, she couldn't come to Severus' every time they needed to meet. That would defeat the purpose. Eager to see if it would work in her room she ran out of the door giving Severus very little explanation as to where she was going.

"Be back in a minute, stay right there!" she called over her shoulder running towards her room.

It had to work this way. It wouldn't make sense any other way and if it did work that meant her and Severus would practically be…living together. She gulped nervously at the thought but found it wasn't a bad type of nervous. Sure it was fast, but it wasn't as if they still didn't have their own separate places, they could just stay together if they felt like it some nights.

Lowering the wards on her door she ran inside and paused a second to catch her breath. Even though it wasn't that far of a distance, her excitement and the fact she ran so fast caused her to be winded.

Straightening up she looked around the room and deciding it didn't really matter where she paced, she started pacing in front of her bed. Keeping her mind completely focused she repeatedly thought '_Take me to Severus, take me to Severus_.'

After pacing several times she looked up to see a door appear on the wall beside her desk. Grinning, she quickly reached for the doorknob and yanked it open.

Stepping inside she found herself facing the door she had left from Severus' rooms. It had worked just the way she thought it would have to. Smiling she ran across the room and threw herself up into Severus' arms kissing him soundly on the mouth.

Hearing him groan, she moved her lips from his mouth down to his neck noting with satisfaction the groan that escaped his throat. She was moving her lips down further with the intent of loosening his cravat when suddenly he pushed her away.

"Wait, what about the door on the seventh floor? It must be checked to make sure nobody else can come in here while we are using it. It won't do to just assume we are the only ones allowed in here."

Reluctantly nodding her head in agreement hating to have yet another moment with him interrupted but also knowing what he was saying was completely logical. It wouldn't do to have another student barge into the room somehow or by using it while they were not, causing them to be locked out until said student left.

Allowing him to leave they exited the room and cautiously crept out of his office, leaving the dungeons behind. Keeping to the shadows and Severus' back Hermione looked out for any sign of movement. She didn't keep her guard up completely though, since she figured Severus was used to sneaking around so they would be pretty safe in this aspect.

Slowly and carefully they made their way up to the seventh floor. When they finally arrived they looked around carefully before Severus quietly nudged her to where the Room of Requirement's entrance had been since the castle had been built Hermione assumed.

Shakily looking around, Hermione slowly paced in front of the wall thinking clearly in her mind for it to show them if it was accessible or not anymore. After pacing three times she glanced up to see a stone wall still there, no door visible at all.

Glancing curiously at Severus he motioned her back into the shadows where he stood before taking her place and pacing much the same as she had. To both of their delight it remained a wall again. He turned and looked at her impassively, but she could tell from his eyes that he was satisfied that they were safe.

She on the other hand was ecstatic. They were safe. Finally. Now they could practice, study, and be alone without any sneaking around. If they hadn't been in the middle of a hallway she would have kissed him again, but not wanting to risk what they had just secured she refrained. Instead she bit her lip, raising an eyebrow hoping he got the message.

Apparently he did, because she watched as his eyes darkened a shade from lust and suddenly he was back in the shadows and walking briskly back towards the dungeons. She had to almost run to keep up. It didn't bother her though, what was awaiting them so many floors below would more than make up for how out of breath she would be.

**A/N: So so sorry this is so late again! I will make you all a deal though. Only a few more weeks of college so within those weeks I will promise an update once a week at least! After that hopefully it will become much more regular. As I'm sure you all understand classes coming to an end means ridiculous loads of work and studying. I hope you all understand and continue to read. Let me know what you think by reviewing, really it won't take much time and I love you all for giving me feedback. **

**Also let me know what you would like to see in the next chapter or so. After about two or more so chapters we are going to be skipping over a few months so I need some ideas on how to make this work and my readers still enjoy the story!**


	16. Preview of Ch 16

**Preview to the next chapter (the first page):**

Hermione walked around the grounds Tuesday morning reflecting on all that had happened since the night they had found that the castle provided them the Room of Requirements.

It was a beautiful day, albeit a bit chilly, but the sun was shining high ahead reflecting on the lake. Hermione glanced around, appreciating the image of light shining on the dewdrops still clinging to the grass and flowers. Hogwarts really did portray a picturesque setting with the looming castle in the background on one side and the Forbidden Forest on the other, looking anything but forbidden on this wonderful morning. Hogwarts, on days like today, was the essence of magical.

This setting along with the thoughts playing through her head allowed a whimsical smile to dance on her lips and if anyone had been outside to see her it would have been clear that she was a woman deeply in love. Her eyes were lit up from more than just the reflecting sun and her step almost had a skip to it. Something that for practical-minded Hermione had never been graced upon her features before.

Her thoughts drifted to replay the night they had discovered the Room of Requirements was now linking their two rooms as one. It was a scene she had replayed many times, but had yet to find time to really analyze.

They returned to the room allowing their desire for each other to quickly overtake them. It was as if they could not survive without the other and before she knew it their kisses led them to the bed. It shocked her that amid such passion she could feel nervous but with the soft mattress pressing into her back and Severus' apparent arousal pressing into her stomach nerves quickly took over.

Looking back, she decided it had to be all the events that occurred before that which caused her nerves to jump forward, since she certainly hadn't felt any nerves when they were so close to reaching that final step at his house. It certainly was an exciting day full of emotional turmoil, what with all McGonagall had said, Severus telling her he was rightfully headmaster but could never claim the position, learning about Susan, and then finding the room. It was no wonder she felt overwhelmed by yet another major event about to happen in her life.

She felt a twist of happiness in her stomach as she remembered how understanding Severus was when she asked him to stop as he reached to take her shirt off. It had been easy to see the desire in his eyes and she knew it had to be harder than he allowed to show to make himself stop what he was doing.

The fact that he respected her wishes that easily showed how much he cared about her and reconfirmed what a great man he truly was.

**A/N: I am so sorry that it has been so long since I've updated. Some of my professors pushed finals back to an earlier date and it has loaded me down with so much work I've barely been able to breathe. If you want to throw complaints and insults I completely understand!**

**However this brought forward me allowing you all a preview of the next chapter. Granted the first page isn't much but a recap, but still. It shows a glimpse at what we didn't see at the end of the last chapter.**

**Now ready for some bigger hints to what the next chapter brings? Ok, here we go!**

**Ginny is upset, Harry is at Hogwarts, and Hermione starts on Severus' version of the Wolfsbane potion. **

**I'm writing as we speak so hopefully it won't take long to have it up. I have one final left. Right now I have 2 final grades in to anyone who cares. I finished with an A in US History since 1877 and an A in Biology Lecture. Now I'm patiently waiting on my last 4 classes.**

**Once again so sorry and I will await the abuse I'm sure to get and deserve =P**


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